Posts Tagged ‘state affiliate’

Addressing P-20 Education Censorship Washington Week

As of May 2, PEN America has noted that 34% of Live Educational Gag Order bills affect Institutes of Higher Education, and 100% of the teachers in the 15 states that have signed gag orders into law feel the impact on their work. In addition to these laws and the more than 80 live gag-order bills, rampant illegal and legalized banning of books is restricting the rights of educators to serve diverse students and their equally diverse needs. It is necessary for educators to understand and address this coordinated attack to protect students’ quality of education, human rights and mental health.

This year, at AACTE’s 2022 Washington Week, AACTE has dedicated one of its three strands to education censorship. The strand was developed based on feedback from members and AACTE’s research report on education censorship. Highlights from the report will be released at Washington Week. Sessions will cover the following objectives:

  1. The scope, tactics, and themes within education censorship policies
  2. Which policies implicate IHE, and how faculty can organize to address them
  3. How these policies and the moral panic surrounding them affect the work of teachers, and therefore teacher educators

Perfecting Your Advocacy Skills at Washington Week

Advocacy for teacher preparation programs and the fundamental need to place highly diverse qualified teachers in the classroom across the nation is more dire than ever before. AACTE’s Washington Week is the precise opportunity to perfect one’s craft of advocacy through training, workshops, and immersive experiences by conducting congressional visits with Senators and Congressmen or Congresswomen on Capitol Hill.

Legislators may not be aware of the obstacles our teacher preparation programs are confronted with on a daily basis nor the negative impact it is having on school districts in surrounding communities, and someone else might be telling your story incorrectly. This is one of the times when universities aren’t competing against one another and can come together to advocate the need for teacher preparation to be an equitable education for all children. Institutions of higher education are able to cohesively express the barriers encountered by teacher preparation programs and share their stories as one collective unit to their designated state legislators. You are able to learn how to advocate for the importance of the Higher Education Act, Teacher Quality Grants, and other fiscal appropriations that pertain to teacher preparation in the hopes that legislators will move it to the forefront of their agenda. More significantly, Washington Week has returned in person this year allowing you to better collaborate with colleagues in your field and even within your state.

Stacey Leftwich says Washington Week ‘Prepares You to be a Change Agent’ Advocates 

For the first time in three years, AACTE will be hosting its 2022 Washington Week in-person in Washington DC, June 6 – 8. This annual educational policy and advocacy event draws together AACTE’s State Chapter Leadership, Holmes’ Scholars, deans, and faculty for an opportunity to learn and advocate for education and for high quality educational preparation programs throughout the country.

This year, AACTE is combining the best programming from three separate events — State Leaders Institute, Holmes Policy Institute, and Day on the Hill — into one reimagined mini-conference for enhanced collaboration and networking. The 2022 Washington Week program includes shared keynotes and strand-based sessions on today’s most critical issues in education and teacher preparation: censorship, educator shortage, and educator diversity. Attendees can choose to align with a particular strand throughout the event or select sessions from among the three strands.

Executive Director of the Office of Educator Support and Partnerships at Rowan University, Stacey Leftwich, has only attended Washington Week once, and it was virtually. But, as the new president to her AACTE state affiliate, she found Washington Week’s State Leadership Institute (SLI) invaluable in preparing her for her state advocacy activities, stating “(SLI) was particularly helpful as we prepared for the Day on the Hill activities and for our meeting with our state senators and representatives.” Leftwich shares more during her chat with AACTE about her Washington Week experience.

Register for AACTE Washington Week: In Person for Greater Impact

2022 Washington Week - Register Now

Join AACTE in Washington, DC, June 6 – 8, for this year’s annual signature event, 2022 Washington Week, “Educating the Future: Policy and Advocacy as Levers of Change.” AACTE and ACSR state affiliate leaders, Holmes Scholars, and deans and faculty will join together in the nation’s capital to advocate for education and teacher preparation.

With legislative and other critical challenges facing educators and students throughout the country, this is the year to get involved and make your voice heard.

What’s new and different?

This year, AACTE combines the best programming from three separate events—the State Leaders Institute, Holmes Policy Institute, and Day on the Hill—into one reimagined mini-conference.

Registration Opens Soon for AACTE’s Washington Week, June 6 – 8

2022 Washington Week

Join AACTE June 6 – 8 in the nation’s capital for 2022 Washington Week. This annual, signature event is back in person, with state affiliate leaders, Holmes Scholars, deans, and educators joining together to advocate for education and teacher preparation.

With legislative and other critical challenges facing educators and students throughout the country, this is the year to get involved and make your voice heard. Join us for a reimagined event featuring keynote speakers, strand sessions, constituency sessions, and networking opportunities. Targeted sessions will include the following activities:

MACTE Testifies in Support of Funding to Increase a Diverse Teacher Workforce

ACTE_Minnesota_LogoI serve as the legislative liaison for the Minnesota Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (MACTE), a consortium of over 20 public and private institutions of higher education. We represent both urban and rural geographic regions and we range in size. In Minnesota, we are unique in that the governor is a democrat, the house is majority democrat, and the senate is majority republican.

Prior to the launch of the Minnesota legislative session, MACTE developed collaborative legislative priorities that guide our work with the legislature. This year our four main goals are 1) to maintain high quality teacher preparation standards and support initiatives that reflect the research base around teaching methodologies; 2) increase the diversity of the Minnesota teaching force through strategies to recruit, support, prepare, and retain teachers of color; 3) to improve the retention of teachers; and 4) to support high-quality research-based E-12 instructional practices. In my work as the liaison, I attend committee meetings and advocate our support (or opposition) to proposed legislation through written or oral testimony. I am often supported by our MACTE leadership, our faculty who are content area experts, and our teacher candidates.

2022 ACSR Business Meeting in Review

“Building Capacity, Community, and Inclusive Leadership” was the theme of the ACSR Business meeting held this year at the AACTE Annual Meeting in New Orleans. Chapter leaders from around the country gathered to connect and to discuss the pressing issues impacting the education profession in their state. 

John Blackwell, in his last official act as chair of ACSR, led a discussion about the ways AACTE state affiliates have sought to build leadership capacity and the resources that have aided their efforts.  Afterwards, Robin Fuxa of Oklahoma State University and incoming ACSR chair-elect, continued the conversation with a panel discussion, which included the participation of Tara Haskins of Eastern Washington University, Adria Hoffman of Virginia Commonwealth University, Beth Kubitskey of University of Michigan (Flint), and Stacy Leftwich of Rowan University.

NJACTE Announces Terri Givens as Keynote Speaker for Day of Assessment Conference

The New Jersey Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (NJACTE) state affiliate is excited to announce its fifth annual Day of Assessment Conference, offered this year — free of charge — over the course of two dates: March 24 and March 31, 2022. Both days will start with a featured speaker, followed by concurrent presentations by the affiliate members and other colleagues in the field. The conference began as an in-person event, and in recent years it has shifted to a virtual format that has enabled participation from a wider geographic area across the mid-Atlantic region. The annual event is part of our overall efforts to increase chapter engagement providing a valuable opportunity for faculty, administrators, and students to come together and learn from each other on various aspects of assessment in educator preparation.

Terri GivensThe conference will kick off on March 24 with keynote speaker, Terri Givens who will talk about “Empathy in Assessment? The Challenge of Inclusion”— a timely and thought-provoking topic in higher education. Givens will share how this work has challenged the way to approach her own assessment in the classroom, and her thinking on how to develop desired outcomes more broadly on our campuses. Givens is a professor of political science at McGill University, founder of Brighter Professional Development, and an accomplished author. Her most recent books are the memoir, Radical Empathy: Finding a Path to Bridging Racial Divides and The Roots of Racism: The Politics of White Supremacy in the US and Europe. After Givens speaks, attendees will have a choice of member presentations to attend, in the concurrent presentation track.

Perspective | A teacher licensure proposal from NC Association for Colleges of Teacher Educators

This perspective, written by the North Carolina Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (NCACTE) Advocacy and Policy Committee, originally appeared on NdNC.org and is reprinted with permission.

High angle view of a Caucasian female teacher with long blonde hair holding a picture of leaves and a diverse group of schoolchildren sitting at desks looking and raising their hands, during a lesson in an elementary school classroomThe purpose of this update is to provide feedback to educational partners on the North Carolina Association for the Colleges of Teacher Educator’s (NCACTE) collective perceptions of the current policy discussions related to revising the teacher licensure process in North Carolina. These proposals were originally suggested by the Human Capital Roundtable and have been reviewed over the last year by PEPSC subcommittees. This document was created by the NCACTE Advocacy & Policy Committee, almost all of whom serve on one of the subcommittees.

After spending many months in meetings, reviewing documents, and listening to feedback from all stakeholders involved, we have synthesized our thoughts here. While we believe this work has progressed, there are still several areas where we believe additional work is needed. We would like to thank PEPSC for this work and continue to offer our service as these issues evolve. We ask for the reader’s indulgence in reviewing this entire document carefully.

In our discussions, three priorities emerged (in no particular order):

AACTE Forges New Relationship with State Chapters

AACTE | ACSR logos

Last year, the AACTE Board of Directors created a State Chapter Taskforce to study the relationship between the national office and its state affiliates. After a year-long, wide-ranging set of discussions with state leaders to determine how the relationship between AACTE and state associations could be strengthened, the State Chapter Taskforce released its recommendations

Over the summer, the Taskforce delivered the recommendations related to communication, advocacy, and governance that were endorsed by the AACTE Board of Directors.  One of the recommendations was to implement new state association agreements that affirm the benefits of collaboration between AACTE and state associations; provide maximum flexibility and autonomy for state associations; protect the interests of AACTE and its members; and update and standardize agreements across all states.

MSU College of Education Announces 2021 MACTE Award Recipients

Mississippi State’s College of Education is announcing the newest MSU alumni among this year’s Mississippi Association of Colleges for Teacher Education award winners.

“I would like to congratulate the college’s 2021 MACTE award winners. These outstanding educators are making a difference in the lives of students and families across Mississippi,” said MSU College of Education Dean Teresa Jayroe.

Honorees

State Affiliates Gather, Collaborate, and Strategize at SLI

2021 Washington Week - State Leaders InstituteAs the door closes on another successful State Leaders Institute (SLI), I want to thank all the attendees and participants for helping make 2021 SLI the enjoyable, informative, and successful event that it was.  Thank you to AACTE for renewing their commitment with the new State Affiliate Agreement. We look forward to many years of advocacy and collaboration.

SLI is one of the few occasions when state leaders can come together as a physical group and discuss best practices, learn about the latest developments in educator preparation, and fellowship. The demands placed on all of us as professionals and individuals over the past couple of years have made gatherings such as SLI especially meaningful.  I miss meeting as a group and look forward to seeing everyone next year in person.  Though this year’s SLI had to be virtual, judging from the energy and comments, everyone enjoyed themselves and took full advantage of the occasion.

NYACTE Partners with NYSATE to Host 2021 Annual Conference

New York Association of Colleges for Teacher Education logo

The New York Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (NYACTE) is hosting its annual conference jointly with the New York State Association of Teacher Education. The 2021 conference is entitled Educational Innovation for Equity and Excellence. Progressively delivered in a virtual format September 30 through November 2, all events are free of charge. It is not too late to join us for an interactive member presentation that will take place on October 21 from 1:00-3:00 p.m. EST. In addition, asynchronous (pre-recorded) paper presentations are also available.

The conference highlights the ways in which New York educator preparation programs (EPPs) and PK-12 engage in partnerships and innovations for advancing educational equity. The conference addresses ways in which state level policy and local practices address programming for greater outcomes among diverse student populations and school communities. The conference concludes with our keynote speaker Elaine Gross, who will challenge the profession in its efforts for racial justice.