Alliant University and San Diego Unified Partner Through TEACH-LEAD Program

By Alliant International University

Alliant International University and San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) have partnered through SDUSD’s TEACH-LEAD program in order to support aspiring teachers on their educational journey. With both institutions dedicated to equity in education, representation in the classroom, and providing the support that teachers need both in education and practice, the partnership was a natural step toward shared impact.

TEACH-LEAD San Diego (TLSD) is San Diego Unified’s latest endeavor focused on eliminating barriers that hold future educators back from pursuing their goals. The new program offers both financial and personalized pathway resources to individuals beginning or continuing their journey towards a career as a teacher. TEACH-LEAD San Diego is the district’s new “grow your own” teacher pipeline program, dedicated to supporting individuals in becoming teachers in their local communities.

Thomas More School of Education Launches First Dyslexia Institute

By Lyna Kelley

Photo by Justin Merriman

A truly one-of-a-kind initiative, Thomas More University’s School of Education launches the commonwealth’s first Dyslexia Institute. The institute supports students and the greater community through sharing resources that are intentionally designed to promote awareness and create change by highlighting the dyslexic profile. Fully understanding the impact of dyslexia enables parents, teachers, and employers to ensure dyslexic children and adults have the support needed to thrive. Programming through the institute includes assessment clinics, teacher training, direct family support, and more.

“Thomas More is the first university in the commonwealth to have a dyslexia-specific resource for our students and our community,” explains Kayla Steltenkamp, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Education. Steltenkamp is a renowned expert in the field of literacy and dyslexia and leads the new initiative. “The Thomas More University Dyslexia Institute is a preeminent source in Kentucky to disseminate the latest research, share practical resources with the community, and to transform the instruction and intervention for all dyslexic children and adults,” adds Steltenkamp.

A New High-touch, Low-tech Approach to Summer Learning is Increasing Student engagement in West Philadelphia

By Penn GSE News

A member of a classroom team works with a group of students in the summer program at Henry C. Lea Elementary in West Philadelphia. The format of the Netter Center and Penn GSE collaboration was transformed this year to better individualize it for students. (Photos by Joe McFetridge)

This article was originally published by Penn GSE News.

For the last six weeks, Henry C. Lea Elementary in West Philadelphia has been humming with excitement and energy as students joyfully engage with interesting, colorful educational content. The activity is part of a joint pilot led by the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships and Penn GSE, which has kids from kindergarten to third grade engrossed, immersed, and learning.

“The last two years [gave] us a lot of information about what works and what doesn’t. Really listening to the teachers and being creative about how instructional teams could be built for closer support of kids were really at the heart of this new model,” said Caroline Watts, a senior lecturer, and director of Penn GSE’s Office of School and Community Engagement (OSCE).

Although this is the third summer of the Netter Center and Penn GSE collaboration, the program is being considered a pilot. That’s because this year, the learning model was radically altered. Instead of 45-minute blocks modeled to be like regular classes, students now cycle through stations within the classroom and work through smaller, more gamified tasks.

APSU Education Professors Work Abroad with NSF Grant

By Megan Simpson

This article was originally published by Austin Peay State University.

A group of faculty members from Austin Peay State University’s Eriksson College of Education traveled to France this summer as part of a three-year, $300,000 International Research Experience for Students (IRES) grant from the National Science Foundation. The team, consisting of John McConnell, Philip Short and Donna Short, arrived in June to evaluate Austin Peay STEM students participating in the program at the University of Rennes.

The University of Rennes, in Rennes, France, along with the two other European universities participating, specialize in nano and glass technology. As part of the experience, six Austin Peay students conduct research and learn from experts in these fields each year. The students also gain valuable cultural experience throughout their seven weeks in Europe.

A Critical Dialogue on Educators’ Return to School: Prospects for Strengthening Professional Practice

By Amanda Wilkerson and Shalander Samuels

Education has undergone significant transformations. This is evident when we consider the revisionist account of American history regarding slavery and the adjustments to the curriculum in Florida as an illustration. These changes motivated by ideological incoherence threaten to test educators’ professional fortitude regarding reactions to curricular challenges, book bans, and the discursive molding of parent engagement in education. For this reason, we focus our discussion on conceptualizations of remaining professionally vigilant. That is to say, although the field of education has been subjected to some of the most devastating assaults, we consider these dynamics for review: Asserting our unwavering determination to preeminence in the domain of education, questioning the harmful ideas about curriculum, and building the next generation of educational leaders.

UNCC College of Education Receives $23M Grant to Support Literacy Education

By UNC Charlotte

University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Cato College of Education, a leader in literacy instruction and research, has been selected by the Mebane Foundation to help continue its legacy of supporting innovation in literacy education in North Carolina and beyond through a five-year grant and potential endowment of up to $23 million. 

The decision follows a competitive statewide search to identify a partner to continue to carry on founder Allen Mebane’s commitment to support inventive educational endeavors as the foundation winds down operations over the next decade.

Young Children Develop Better Learning Skills When Taught by Teachers of the Same Ethnicity, National US Study Suggests

By Simon Wesson

Young children who are taught by a teacher of the same ethnicity as themselves are developing better learning and problem-solving skills by the age of seven, new research suggests.

The effect was most pronounced in Black and Latinx children, the findings – looking at more than 18,000 pupils across the US – showed.

Published in the peer-reviewed journal Early Education and Development, the study revealed that if the ethnicity of children is shared with that of their teachers, the children are more likely to go on to develop better working memory. This is the ability to hold and process information in your mind – a skill which is essential for learning and problem solving.

NASA Space Science Education Resources and the Importance of Real-World, Authentic Solutions for Meaningful Student Learning

By Anne Tapp Jaksa

Quality real-world Science Technology Engineering and Mathematic (STEM) educational resources are needed within programs of teacher education and P-12 classrooms. The National Association of Manufacturing (2018) reported that the United States will need to fill 3.5 million jobs by 2025, with more than two million going unfilled due to lack of highly skilled in-demand candidates. The US Defense Industrial Base Industrial Capabilities Report (2021) showed a need for STEM education by stating that the STEM shortage is quickly approaching crisis status. This report is a congressionally-mandated, annual requirement in which the Secretary of Defense informs the armed services committees on the actions, investments, and overall health of the U.S. defense industrial base. 

Important Work Continues While Congress on Recess

By Kaitlyn Brennan

This weekly Washington Update is intended to keep members informed on Capitol Hill activities impacting the educator preparation community. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.

We have finally made it to mid-term election week. Congress remains on recess until after the elections, but important work continues. It is my hope that by the end of the week we will have the complete results of the mid-term elections and I will provide an analysis on the makeup of the 118^th Congress in our next Washington Update.

Innovative Tennessee Teacher Prep Program Aims to Prepare a New Breed of Educators

By Lisa Buie

This article originally appeared on reimaginED, the policy and public affairs communications platform for Step Up For Students and is reprinted with permission.

The Early Learning Residency Program at Austin Peay University proved to be what recent graduate Malachi Johnson was looking for: a college education and a guaranteed job.

In her 20s, Heather Fracker set her sights on becoming a respiratory therapist. But as John Lennon observed, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

Fast forward two decades, and Fracker, a 43-year-old single mom to two middle schoolers, is pursuing a new dream. In two years, she will be a fully credentialed elementary school teacher thanks to an accelerated program that began in her hometown.

SVSU Sees Teacher Certification Enrollment Growth and Student Achievement

By Saginaw Valley State University

Saginaw Valley State University is seeing gains in the number of students pursuing teacher certification at the university for the fall 2022 semester.  In addition, SVSU’s award-winning residence halls are completely filled, as student interest in living on campus has rebounded.

SVSU has 146 students pursuing teacher certification, up from 126 last year, including 23 new students who are employees of Saginaw Public Schools and enrolled through a new partnership between SVSU and the school district. All of these students have previously completed bachelor’s degrees and want to become certified teachers.

Call for Manuscripts: The Teacher Educators’ Journal

By Kristien Zenkov

The Teacher Educators’ Journal (TTEJ) is published by the Virginia Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators (VACTE), a state unit of the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). The journal aims to stimulate discussion and reflection about issues related to teacher education; authors need not be based in and research need not be conducted in Virginia for manuscripts to be considered for publication. Manuscripts submitted for consideration may be research/empirical reports and analyses, position papers, book reviews, or conceptual essays.

To facilitate collaboration amongst teacher education scholars and practitioners and improve teaching, research, and student learning, the Fall 2023 special issue of the journal will call on authors to address two related sub-themes in two distinct sections.

• Section I: The sub-theme for this section is “Opportunity Gaps and Collaborative Inquiry: Structures, Explorations, and Early Outcomes of the ATE Inquiry Initiative.”
• Section II: The sub-theme for this section is “From Policy to Practice: Striving for Inclusive Excellence through Personal Reflection, Connectivity, and the Building of Support Systems for Leaders, Educators, Students, and Families.”

App State to Open Lab School at Elkin Elementary

University will be only UNC System institution to operate two lab school programs

By Anna Oakes

Courtesy of Marie Freeman

Appalachian State University is partnering with Elkin City Schools to open the university’s second laboratory school aimed at enhancing student education, improving outcomes and providing high-quality teacher and principal training.

Under the plan — which was developed in collaboration with Elkin City Schools leaders and approved by the Elkin City Schools Board of Education on Dec. 13, 2021 — a lab school will open at Elkin Elementary School in August. The “school-within-a-school” model will serve approximately 100 students in second through fourth grades.

Aiding Teacher Candidates’ Understanding of Learner Variability

By Rachel Besharat Mann

Rachel Besharat Mann will share her experience in translating learning sciences into practice using the Digital Promise Learner Variability Navigator tool during the webinar co-hosted by AACTE, “Learning Sciences Research for the Classroom” on September 26, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. Below, Mann offers a preview about her experience using the web app for whole child learning.

You can read all of the teaching books and take all of the courses but being in the classroom is a completely different experience. You are working with individual people with varied backgrounds and needs and their behaviors; strengths, and needs can change based on a variety of factors outside of a teacher’s control. There is no roadmap to tell you how students learn differently or even if they are learning at all. This is a lesson I’ve learned the hard way over the years and have vowed to help my higher education students avoid the same pitfalls in K-12 classrooms that I did.

LFA Member Organizations React to NAEP Results

By Learning First Alliance

On September 1st, 2022, the Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics released the mathematics and reading results of 9-year-olds from the 2022 NAEP long-term trend assessment. The following summary is from NAEP’s Highlights report:

In 2022, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) conducted a special administration of the NAEP long-term trend (LTT) reading and mathematics assessments for age 9 students to examine student achievement during the COVID-19 pandemic. Average scores for age 9 students in 2022 declined 5 points in reading and 7 points in mathematics compared to 2020. This is the largest average score decline in reading since 1990, and the first ever score decline in mathematics.