15 Nov2018
By Jerrica Thurman
AACTE is a national partner for the University of Florida’s Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform (CEEDAR) Center, which helps states and institutions of higher education to develop the ability of every teacher to prepare students with disabilities for college and careers. As a federally funded multi-million dollar project, CEEDAR works with AACTE and others to promote the preparation of all educators to have the mindset and skillset for effectively instructing students with disabilities along with all other students in the mainstream classroom.
“This initiative is about ensuring that all educators have the skills to work effectively with students with disabilities,” said AACTE Consultant Jane West, who leads the Association’s work with CEEDAR. “Special education has too often been considered a place and not a service. We are highlighting and promoting preparation for both general and special educators so they can provide effective instruction to students with disabilities in inclusive ways with an eye toward raising expectations and undermining the stigmatizing of students with disabilities.”
06 Nov2018
By JTE Insider
Check out the latest the JTE Insider blog interview by the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) editorial team. This blog is available to the public, and AACTE members have free access to the articles in the JTE online archives—just log in with your AACTE profile.
This interview features insights from the JTE article, “Interrogating the Intersections Between General and Special Education in the History of Teacher Education Reform” by Linda P. Blanton, Marleen C. Pugach, and Mildred Boveda. The article appears in the Sept/Oct 2018 issue of JTE.
15 Oct2018
By Jerrica Thurman
Nearly 40 members of the AACTE Clinical Practice Commission (CPC) and the Special Education Task Force met in Washington, DC on September 24-26 to discuss their separate and shared initiatives that serve as next steps for advancing the new CPC report. Released in January 2018, A Pivot Toward Clinical Practice, Its Lexicon, and the Renewal of Educator Preparation by the CPC offers a framework, guidance, and common lexicon to expand the operationalization of clinical educator preparation. Its 10 proclamations and tenets identify highly effective and evidence-based practices for embedding teacher preparation in the PK-12 environment.
During the planning session, the CPC developed a working plan to advance its emissary work and to create a site-based peer-coaching model. The Taskforce focused on finalizing a series of tenets that will be added to the existing CPC proclamations to provide more specific practice recommendations for special and inclusive educator preparation.
“The CPC met on the first day to discuss the next round of their work, which is to share findings of the report more broadly through focused emissary work and the development of peer coaching strategies,” said Amanda Lester, AACTE director of programs and professional learning. “This emissary work includes a defined plan that will help AACTE members learn more about how to implement the report’s research for developing or expanding their clinical practice model.”
02 Oct2018
By Jerrica Thurman
Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) in Manchester launched its new clinical master’s degree program during the 2018-19 academic year. The program offers dual certification in elementary and special education or early childhood and early childhood special education. It is designed to prepare teacher candidates for certification and to ensure that new educators have the required skills, competencies, knowledge, and dispositions specifically needed to support the development and learning of students in elementary grades (K-8) and general special education (K-12).
“It’s an accelerated 15-month clinical program that enables teacher candidates to work clinically with students during 11 of those months,” said Mary Ford, Interim Dean in the School of Education at SNHU. “They are [working] in supervised clinical experiences learning the craft and skill of teaching as well as monitoring the learning progress of their K-12 students.”
05 Sep2018
By Cori Meredith Brown
Rowan University’s College of Education is the founding college on campus but that doesn’t stop it from continually innovating its practice and creating forward-thinking opportunities for teaching and learning. And so, this year, the oldest college on campus is offering an innovative new degree: the Bachelor of Arts in Inclusive Education.
The concept of inclusive education is simple, yet profound: teachers must be prepared to meet the needs of ALL the learners in their classroom, regardless of differences in race, language, culture, and physical ability.
28 Jun2018
By Deborah Koolbeck
On June 22, the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-H) moved its Fiscal Year 2019 bill through markup. Despite the FY19 increase of $18 billion for nondefense discretionary funds from the deal made earlier this year, the House FY19 Labor-H bill received no additional funds (the Labor-H bill contains about 32% of the nondefense discretionary funds found across all federal agencies).
Given this challenge, it was a pleasant surprise to see that the programs that AACTE advocates for receive level funding or a small increase:
26 Jun2018
By Mahlet B. Tesfaye and Kristin McCabe
In a recent show on Education Talk Radio, host Larry Jacobs interviewed the leaders of AACTE’s Special Education Task Force about their work to improve the clinical preparation of special education professionals. The discussion about diversity, equity, and inclusion included the following guests:
- Deborah Reed, University of North Florida
- Rene Roselle, University of Connecticut
- Amanda Lester, AACTE Director, Programs & Professional Learning
- Jane West, AACTE Consultant
21 May2018
By Kristin McCabe
A new website aims to equip state education agencies to support principals for better serving students with disabilities. AACTE is among nearly two dozen organizations convened by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) to develop the site’s content.
The resulting online guide, Supporting Inclusive Schools for the Success of Each Child: A Guide for States on Principal Leadership, outlines eight strategies for states to embed expectations for inclusive principal leadership in policy and practice:
01 Feb2018
By Kristin McCabe
AACTE will honor Molly Baustien Siuty, assistant professor of inclusive teacher education at Portland State University (OR), with the 2018 AACTE Outstanding Dissertation Award for her study (Re)constituting Teacher Identity for Inclusion in Urban Schools: A Process of Reification and Resistance. The award will be presented at the 70th AACTE Annual Meeting Closing Keynote session, March 3 in Baltimore, Maryland.
Siuty’s dissertation investigated how teacher candidates’ learning about diversity and inclusion in their preservice preparation programs translates – or struggles to translate – into their practice as new teachers. The study uncovered important insights for bridging gaps between teacher preparation and induction.
27 Nov2017
By Brianna Joseph
Congratulations to Monique E. Matute, Holmes Scholar of the Month for November 2017!
Matute is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in special education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). This is her second year in the doctoral program, and she is also a graduate assistant.
Matute is a determined doctoral student who exemplifies hard work and dedication to the field of special education. Her research interests are the disproportionality of African American males in special education and applied behavioral analysis. She strives to present critical issues and implications on overrepresentation and underrepresentation of students from culturally linguistic and diverse backgrounds in special education.
07 Nov2017
By Sarah Verneret
In a recent Education Talk Radio program, host Larry Jacobs interviewed members of AACTE’s new Special Education Task Force about how best to prepare special educators—particularly in light of their current shortage around the country.
Jacobs’ guests for the October 26 show included AACTE Vice President Rodrick Lucero; Brian R. Barber, assistant professor of special education at Kent State University (OH); Valeisha Ellis, assistant professor and edTPA coordinator at Spelman College (GA); and Karmen Kelly, business officer in the School of Social Work at Colorado State University. All are members of the new AACTE task force, which is supported by a grant from the Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform (CEEDAR) Center.
06 Oct2017
By Rodrick Lucero and Amanda Lester
We are thrilled to announce the launch of a new AACTE task force to study how to improve the preparation of special education teachers through clinical practice. Growing out of the work of the AACTE Clinical Practice Commission (CPC), the AACTE Special Education Task Force held its inaugural meeting October 1-2 in Washington, DC.
The task force is charged with applying the CPC frameworks for clinical educator preparation to the particular needs of developing special education teachers. During this week’s meeting, the group began outlining the scope of its work, which is supported by a grant from the Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform (CEEDAR) Center. The task force will study areas such as dual licensure and dual preparation models, pipeline strategies around recruitment and retention, interdisciplinary collaboration, and other factors pertinent to this specialized preparation. They ultimately plan to identify models and develop recommendations to amplify promising practices, establish continuous improvement benchmarks, and provide guidance for the field.
15 Aug2017
By Michael Maher
The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.
The Legislative Long Session in North Carolina this year was, in many ways, a productive one for education, generating a number of consequential bills that became law. Included in the slate was the reintroduction of the Teaching Fellows program, thanks to a collaborative effort led by Senator Chad Barefoot and the North Carolina Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators (NCACTE).
08 Aug2017
By JTE Insider
Have you seen the JTE Insider blog managed by the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE) editorial team? Check out the following interview with one author of a recent article. This blog is available to the public, and AACTE members have free access to the articles themselves in the full JTE archives online – just log in with your AACTE profile here.
This interview features insights from the article “Effects of a Multimedia Professional Development Package on Inclusive Science Teachers’ Vocabulary Instruction,” by Michael J. Kennedy, Wendy J. Rodgers, John Elwood Romig, John Wills Lloyd, and Mary T. Brownell. The article, which appears in the March/April issue of JTE, is summarized in the following abstract:
Vocabulary knowledge is vital for students’ success in school and beyond. However, students with disabilities and others who consistently score below their peers on various measures of vocabulary knowledge have difficulties in secondary-level content area courses. Because many students with disabilities are now educated primarily in general education classrooms, their teachers report needing more professional development on instructional strategies to support this population. Using a multiple-baseline design, we tested the efficacy of a multimedia, multicomponent professional development package in which middle school science teachers in inclusive classrooms promoted science vocabulary knowledge. The professional development package improved the quality of the teachers’ use of evidence-based vocabulary practices and increased the amount of time they spent explicitly teaching vocabulary in their classes.
06 Jun2017
By Bryan L. Duke
It may not be often that a state chapter of AACTE seeks to create new legislation outlining expectations for teacher preparation, but that was the case for the Oklahoma Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (OACTE) during the past academic year.
For several years, state legislators had been proposing new dyslexia training requirements for all early childhood, elementary, and special education candidates. However, concerns and tensions escalated between educator preparation providers (EPPs) and interest groups who disagreed on the definition of the problem, the depth of training that would be appropriate, and language that might mandate particular programs and materials. Consequently, discussions and the relationship between groups deteriorated and were unproductive.
