JTE Coeditor: NCTQ Appraisal of Journals Based on Narrow View of Teacher Prep Research

By Kristin McCabe

The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) published an article in last week’s Teacher Quality Bulletin that criticized journals with a teacher education focus for not publishing enough articles on “core techniques and skills.” Targeting AACTE’s Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) in particular, the authors report that “only” 11% of the articles published in JTE in the past 5 years address this topic. JTE Coeditor Fran Arbaugh of Pennsylvania State University sent the following response to the article’s authors:

Call for Entries: AACTE Outstanding Book Award

By Kristin McCabe

AACTE is now accepting nominations for the 2016 Outstanding Book Award. Nominations must be made through our online submission system by June 17.

The Outstanding Book Award recognizes books that make a significant contribution to the knowledge base of educator preparation or of teaching and learning with implications for educator preparation. Eligibility requirements include a publication date within the past 2 years (July 2013–June 2015) and a letter of nomination from a faculty member at an AACTE member institution (who is not an author or editor of the volume); see the call for entries for other requirements.

Appreciating Teachers Who Set Students Up for Success

By Sharon Robinson

Today is one of my favorite days of the year: National Teacher Day. For those of us who work year round to set teachers up for success, it’s a special treat to spotlight their work to do the same for students.

How do great teachers set students up for success?

Reminder: 2015 PEDS Survey Due May 15

By Yupin Bae

AACTE’s 2015 Professional Education Data System (PEDS) survey is now accessible online. If you have not already done so, please complete the survey by Friday, May 15.

As you know, AACTE members annually access this system to report their program/school data and submit Parts A and B of the PEDS survey for summary tabulations. Because these data are used by many education constituents in a variety of ways, AACTE invites all other educator preparation providers to join in the effort and do the same in order to paint a more complete picture of the field of teacher preparation.

Looking Ahead to 2016, NCTQ Continues Data Collection Efforts

By Zachary VanHouten

The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has re-engaged its data collection efforts in preparation for its 2016 Teacher Prep Review—scheduled for an October 2016 release. In an e-mail message to programs throughout the country, NCTQ has sent both an overview of the changes for the 2016 review and an itemized data request for each program, requesting that institutions notify NCTQ if they plan to comply with the request by April 20.

Major Forum Recordings Now Available

By Kristin McCabe

The AACTE Learning Center now includes recordings of all six major forums from the 67th AACTE Annual Meeting in Atlanta. Anyone who was registered for the conference may log in to the Learning Center to view the videos and slides from the forums:

Apples to Oranges: Comparing Student Performance Across Countries With Varied Socioeconomic Conditions

By Donna Sacco, Amanda Bush and Christine DeGregory

In the three decades since A Nation at Risk was released, the state of America’s education system relative to other countries’ has been a matter of heated debate. Along the way, public opinion has placed the onus for our schools’ perceived failure on teachers and their preparation, and education policy has echoed this assumption through an array of accountability measures for teachers and preparation programs.

One driver of the continued misconception about U.S. teacher quality is the highly publicized results of international large-scale education assessments (ILSAs) that suggest America’s students are performing far below other nations. At January’s press briefing for the report The Iceberg Effect, lead researcher and report author James Harvey explained that ILSAs have been misused and that the science behind them is highly questionable, akin to comparing apples to oranges.

JTE Article on Context-Specific Preparation of Urban Teachers to Win AACTE Award

By Kristin McCabe

AACTE will honor authors Kavita Kapadia Matsko of the University of Chicago and Karen Hammerness of the American Museum of Natural History with the 2015 AACTE Outstanding Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) Article Award for their article “Unpacking the ‘Urban’ in Urban Teacher Education: Making a Case for Context-Specific Preparation,” published in the March/April 2014 issue of the journal. The award will be presented at the 67th AACTE Annual Meeting Welcoming Session, Friday, February 27, at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis.

David Stroupe to Receive AACTE Dissertation Award for Study of ‘Ambitious Practice’

By Kristin McCabe

AACTE has chosen David Stroupe, assistant professor of science education at Michigan State University, to receive the 2015 AACTE Outstanding Dissertation Award for his study "Students Drive Where I Go Next": Ambitious Practice, Beginning Teacher Learning, and Classroom Epistemic Communities. The award will be presented at the 67th AACTE Annual Meeting Speaker Spotlight Session, Sunday, March 1, at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis.

Research Fellows: Can Persistence of Urban Teachers Be Attributed to Their Preparation Pathway?

By Kabba Colley, Kathryn C. McGinn and Anthony Pittman

Editor’s Note: AACTE’s two Research Fellowship teams will present a joint session at the Association’s Annual Meeting, Saturday, February 28, at 1:30 p.m. in Room A704 of the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. This post provides background on the fellowship based in New Jersey at Kean University, Rowan University, and William Paterson University.

Is there a difference in teacher persistence in urban districts attributable to specific pathways? Why do teachers say they persist in urban districts? Researchers from Kean University, Rowan University, and William Paterson University came together to explore these and other related questions as part of the AACTE Research Fellowship.

Research Fellows: Data-Collection Challenges Hold Implications for Accountability Measures

By Amy Johnson and Cathie Fallona

Editor’s Note: AACTE’s two Research Fellowship teams will present a joint session at the Association’s Annual Meeting, Saturday, February 28, at 1:30 p.m. in Room A704 of the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. This post provides background on the fellowship at the University of Southern Maine.

The recent release of proposed federal reporting requirements for educator preparation programs stirred up intense interest in the methods and metrics used to evaluate programs. As many people noted in their letters of comment to the U.S. Department of Education earlier this month, several of the proposed new measures are unprecedented and would require investment of significant time and money to collect, analyze, and report data on an annual basis.

edTPA Literature Review Now Available

By Andrea Whittaker

The Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE) is excited to share the edTPA Review of Research on Teacher Education, developed by SCALE with input from educators and researchers to identify foundational research literature that informs the development of edTPA.

The literature cited provides a research foundation for the role of assessment in teacher education, for the common edTPA architecture, and for each of the 15 shared rubric constructs.

‘The Iceberg Effect’—Not Just About Asking Questions

By Amanda Bush, Christine DeGregory and Donna Sacco

Upon arriving at AACTE last month to begin our semester-long internship, we were whisked off to the National Press Club for a press briefing on The Iceberg Effect, based on the new studySchool Performance in Context: Indicators of School Inputs and Outputs in Nine Similar Nations. For three doctoral students who are dedicated to promoting social justice in and out of the classroom, this could not have been a more fitting introduction to our work at AACTE.

The report, released by the National Superintendents Roundtable and the Horace Mann Foundation, casts new light on U.S. students’ performance on international assessments, controlling for social and economic factors that have not been previously studied alongside student achievement on this scale. The results highlight the relatively strong academic achievement of America’s students in spite of our nation’s poor performance in providing supports to help offset the widespread social and economic effects of poverty.

AACTE Names Michigan State Faculty as Next JTE Editors

By AACTE

AACTE is pleased to announce Michigan State University’s College of Education as the next editorial host of the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE). The editors were selected through a competitive proposal process and approved by the Association’s Board of Directors for a 3-year term.

The current editorial team at Pennsylvania State University, which has served the JTE since August 2010, will continue work on the journal through June 2015 to complete Volume 66; however, the Michigan State team will receive all new manuscript submissions effective March 1.

Third Way Report on TEACH Grants Comes Up Short

By Zachary VanHouten

A recent report by the think tank Third Way claims that the federal Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) grant program is failing to meet its aims, instead burdening nearly 40% of recipients to date with converted unsubsidized loans after they failed to complete all program requirements.

The report calls for changes to the program, either through “short-term fixes” such as reducing reporting requirements and limiting grant use to “high-performing” programs (as proposed in the new federal regulations for teacher preparation programs) or, preferably, in a thorough overhaul that streamlines all federal assistance for teachers into a simple loan-forgiveness program.