AACTE President and CEO Lynn M. Gangone, Ed.D., delivered the opening Keynote of the First Congress of the Network of Deans and Deans of Education of Latin American Universities (Redecanedu) in Santiago, Chile, on Sept. 1. Gangone joined remotely with the international meeting of education leaders.
This article originally appeared in District Administration and is reprinted with permission.
Our nation’s most significant innovations stem from education. From the founding of our nation to the moon landing in 1969, from the introduction of personal computers in 1971 to the advent of the internet in 1983, such accomplishments would not have occurred without education and an educated populace. Without educators we will not continue to innovate, create, and lead the world. We have ignored the dwindling number of people entering the field of education for decades. As we continue to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of teachers exiting classrooms only continues to increase.
This article originally appeared in The Hechinger Report.
Long before the pandemic, school districts across the nation struggled to staff classrooms with skilled teachers. The crisis did not create the teacher shortage, but it accelerated teacher retirements and other departures while contributing to declining enrollments in educator preparation programs.
Our nation’s education system spans national, state, district, classroom and community levels. Many rightly wonder if this ecosystem’s demand for qualified teachers can be met in the post-pandemic era.
To do so, we need deeper—and more active—collaborations to address the multiple layers of challenges inside the teaching profession so that we can effectively recruit, train and retain more teachers.
With the 2021-2022 academic year quickly approaching, how are you preparing for in-person, virtual or hybrid teaching and learning settings? Additionally, how are recent, state legislative actions impacting your programs? Your National Office team wants to hear from you. Please take a few minutes to watch this video and share your feedback with us at communications@aacte.org.
Don’t forget about AACTE’s upcoming 2021 Leadership Academy Series, 2021 Washington Week and 2022 Annual Meeting. Registration for all three events is now open, so secure your spot today!
AACTE provides interactive tools and innovative solutions to advance educator preparation. Our new initiatives in 2021 support our vision to revolutionize education for all learners. To learn about our newest offerings, please take a few minutes to watch this video.
In just a few weeks, AACTE will kick off its 2021 Leadership Academy Series on August 11, as well as its 2021 Washington Week in September. Registration is open for these events, as well as the 2022 AACTE Annual Meeting, so secure your spot today. I hope to see you there!
AACTE amplifies member voices in policy matters impacting education and educator preparation, and our collective voice is being heard. President Biden recently proposed the American Families Plan, which directly targets investments into educator preparation programs. AACTE supports the proposal and encourages Congress to act. Please take a few minutes to watch this video and learn more about how you can get involved.
Visit the AACTE Advocacy Center for the latest updates at aacte.org. Be sure to renew your AACTE membership by the extended May 31 deadline.
On behalf of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), President and CEO Lynn M. Gangone issued the following statement today responding to recent hate crimes toward the Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community:
“AACTE believes that to educate is to enlighten. As such, our Association remains committed to educating all learners in PK-12 and higher education institutions to enlighten and empower the next generation of citizens. As an educational association of colleges and universities that values the diversity of students, their families, and educators, AACTE condemns the escalation of violence and harassment toward our AAPI colleagues, students, and friends.
AACTE President and CEO, Lynn M. Gangone is the latest guest on The EdUp Experience podcast with Elizabeth Leiba and Joe Sallustio, EdD. In this episode, Gangone covers the timely topic of the important role teachers play in our society, especially now more than ever.
Greetings! This new year brings new opportunities, as AACTE has moved its National Office to a new address. In this video, I share updates about our new location and how you can stay connected with our Association.
Please take a moment to watch the video message above and discover more about the relocation. Stay tuned for more updates about what is happening at AACTE next month. Meanwhile, please join me at the AACTE 2021 Annual Meeting, February 24-26.
Warm Regards,
“Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.”
– G.K. Chesterton
Happy New Year!
The year 2020 was a tumultuous one for educators. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought educator preparation to a dangerous crossroad, with teachers, principals, school counselors, and other essential education professionals experiencing a debilitating spate of closures and faculty layoffs. The public education workforce lost more than 600,000 jobs last year, with university-based educator preparation programs also encountering reduced enrollment and program closures. Our members have experienced declines in undergraduate enrollment, budget cuts, and reduced staffing. Rising demand for new teachers and shrinking capacity in colleges and universities threatens the high-quality education our populace needs to ensure a rich quality of life and global competitiveness for generations. But as we begin the new year, we look toward 2021 with a renewed sense of hope and optimism for the future.
Mursion CEO Mark Atkinson hosted AACTE’s President and CEO Lynn M. Gangone for a virtual fireside chat in culmination of a multi-part series highlighting how Mursion’s virtual simulation classroom is being used in educator preparation programs. To start the conversation, Gangone reflected on how the pandemic has shaped the need to collaborate and to think differently on the delivery of instruction in the P-20 setting. She noted, “In our strategic planning process we created a vision to revolutionize education for all learners. We had no idea how prescient that was because of the pandemic.”
Rethinking clinical practice with the use of simulation is just one way in which innovation has supported the delivery of high-quality preparation without having to be on-the-ground. This helped accelerate AACTE’s collaboration with Mursion.
In addition to addressing the challenges and innovations brought on by the shift to virtual learning, Gangone and Atkinson also discussed efforts nationally to promote an antiracist agenda in schools to ensure the fair and equitable treatment of students. Gangone mentioned the importance of AACTE’s work in the area of diversity, equity, and inclusion. “We know that we all have implicit bias and that systemic racism exists,” she said. “So AACTE has been doing a lot of work in this area, from entrance exams into programs to other barriers to enter the profession.”
The discussion also focused on how simulation can support both teacher candidates and teacher preparation faculty in addressing their own inherent or implicit biases, which often carry into the classroom. “Simulation gives us an opportunity to deal with our own biases in ways that are really powerful and not bring harm,” commented Gangone. Engaging teacher education faculty in the simulation space could not only help to address biases and equity, but to better understand social and emotional learning, and effective pedagogy. There are a great number of possibilities when thinking through combining scholarship with simulation to move the field of education forward. Atkinson noted, “There is so much that we can bring to the floor, for teachers and leaders together, to really improve the way children experience school once they can get back into them again.”
Listen to the full recording of this conversation.
AACTE and Mursion are collaborating to support teacher preparation through the pandemic and beyond. Learn more details about this collaboration.
