Posts Tagged ‘teacher quality’

Lipscomb University to Launch New Teacher Preparation Program to Support Rural Communities

Lipscomb University is launching a new teacher preparation program designed for educators and leaders in rural school systems across Tennessee, President Candice McQueen announced today. 

Beginning next fall, Lipscomb University is making plans to offer a Rural Education and Coaching Certificate program designed to feature specific professional learning, coursework, and field experiences that focus on the challenges and opportunities unique to rural districts. Tennessee has the nation’s fifth-largest number of students attending rural schools, with more than 293,000 rural students — well over three times the roughly 86,000 students enrolled in Metro Nashville Public Schools. This new certificate program will provide valuable resources and training to support and equip highly effective teachers in these communities.

AACTE and Education Community Urge Congress to Support EDUCATORS for America Act 

AACTE recently sent a letter to all members of Congress urging them to cosponsor the EDUCATORS for America Act (S 3360/HR 6205), which would invest in and revitalize federal educator preparation programs. These programs are critical to addressing the shortage of profession-ready, fully licensed teachers in our nation’s classrooms. The letter was cosigned by 41 other education groups. 

Opinion: Problems with the ‘Teacher Pipeline’ — An Unfit Analogy for Finding (and Fostering) Future Educators 

“Teacher Pipeline” is a common term used to encompass issues of teacher recruitment, preparation, and retention. The phrase is not new, popular in seasons of dire teacher shortages —from the 1980s (AACTE, 1988; Ekstrom & Goertz, 1985) to our present age (Choate, Goldhaber, & Theobald, 2020; Goldhaber & Mizrav, 2021; Kyser et al., 2021).  

 A “Teacher Pipeline” evokes vivid imagery: supply and demand, staff shortages akin to an energy crisis, and an impetus to extract and extrude future educators. To wit, the pipeline analogy lends itself to further symbolism such as “refueling” (Goldhaber et al., 2015/6); “widening” (Gagnon et al., 2019), “excavating” (Goldhaber & Cowan, 2014); and dealing with numerous “breaks,” “holes,” or “leaks” (Barth et al., 2016; Shah et al., 2018; Stohr, Fontana, & Lapp, 2018; TNTP, 2020). 

Important Work Continues While Congress on Recess

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.

Department of Education logoWe 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 118th Congress in our next Washington Update.

Teaching Innovators: A Spotlight on Special Education at Clemson University

This article was originally published by Clemson News and is reprinted with permission.

Catherine Griffith serves as a clinical associate professor of special education in the Department of Education and Human Development at Clemson University. She coordinates the Master of Education program in Special Education with emphases in academic and behavioral interventions and teaches coursework on individuals with learning disabilities and emotional and behavioral disorders, intensive academic interventions, and applied behavior analysis.

In the States: A Look at the Southern Region

The new “In the States” feature by Kaitlyn Brennan is a weekly update to keep members informed on state-level activities impacting the education and educator preparation community.

States and districts around the country continue to scramble to fill teaching positions with fully certified, profession ready educators. A recent analysis from the  Southern Regional Education Board of 2019-20 data in 11 states found roughly 4% of teachers — which could be up to 56,000 educators — were uncertified or teaching with an emergency certification. By 2030, the number of uncertified teachers or those teaching with an emergency certification is expected to balloon. The Southern Regional Education Boards projects that upwards of 16 million K-12 students in the Southern region of the country could be taught by an unprepared or inexperienced teacher. While the pandemic certainly exacerbated the problem, it is not new and has steadily gotten worse over the last decade. For example, in Texas school districts’ reliance on uncertified new hires increased significantly over the last decade. In the 2011-12 school year, fewer than 7% of the state’s new teachers — roughly 1,600 — didn’t have a certification. By last year, about 8,400 of the state’s nearly 43,000 new hires were uncertified.

Learner Variability and Culturally Responsive Practices

Understanding learner variability helps disrupt the idea of a one-size-fits all approach and paves the way for more equitable teaching and learning. The intersection of culturally responsive practice with the science of learner variability can provide great insight into what it takes to successfully implement culturally responsive instruction with both teachers and students.  It also helps us understand why culturally responsive practices are necessary for reaching and embracing the whole learner.

On November 10, 2022 at 1:00 p.m., we will hear from our distinguished panelists, Courtney Teague, Angela Elkordy, and Leigh Ann Erikson, on how they approach culturally responsive practice in their courses and practice. We’ll discuss some of the key findings from the research on culturally responsive practices, where the research gaps are, and the importance of culturally responsive practices in teacher education and K-12 classrooms. Register today for the Learner Variability and Culturally Responsive Practices, hosted by Digital Promise and AACTE.

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

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.

HPU’s Stout School of Education Receives Nearly $10 Million Teacher Quality Partnership Grant

The U.S. Department of Education Grant Will Fund Master of Arts in Teaching and Master of Education for Principals Programs.

High Point University’s Stout School of Education is a recipient of a nearly $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to fund two graduate programs for teachers and principals for the next five years. The school will receive $9,786,041, the second largest federal Teacher Quality Partnership grant awarded to 22 universities in the nation.

The Teacher Quality Partnership grant is the largest competitive grant ever awarded to High Point University, says Amy Holcombe, dean of the Stout School of Education. This is the second Teacher Quality Partnership Grant awarded to HPU’s Stout School of Education, which received a previous $4 million grant in October 2018.

Call for Manuscripts: The Teacher Educators’ Journal

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.”

College of Education Receives $9.6 million Federal Grant to Diversify Teaching Workforce

Mercer University’s Tift College of Education will partner with five local school districts on a three-year, $9.6 million U.S. Department of Education grant project aimed at strengthening the teacher pipeline in order to increase and diversify the teaching workforce.

The award is the largest federal grant in the history of the College of Education, which was formed by the merger of Tift College with Mercer in 1986 and is the largest private preparer of teachers and other educators in Georgia.

Last Chance to Register for AACTE Webinar: Internationalizing Education in Teacher Preparation

AACTE’s Committee on Global Diversity is proud to host the University of Missouri-St Louis, College of Education, recipient of the 2022 AACTE Best Practice Award in Support of Global & International Perspectives. This award, sponsored by AACTE’s Committee on Global Diversity, recognizes exemplary practice in the intercultural, global, cross-cultural, and international arenas and is presented each year at AACTE’s Annual Meeting. The College of Education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis launched a year-long effort to enhance the internationalizing of teacher preparation programs. The main objectives were to initiate a professional learning community centered on globally competent teaching, integrate global perspectives in teacher education programs, create and share globally infused curricula, and strengthen international partnerships. The project was a comprehensive approach targeting faculty, staff, and students. In this webinar, they will share four of the initiatives from their year.=

On Thursday, October 6, join AACTE and the Committee on Global Diversity in welcoming the University of Missouri, St Louis College of Education faculty and staff as they share their experience with AACTE membership. Register today.

U.S. Department of Education Awards Nearly $25 Million to Support Educator Workforce

Department of Education logoThe U.S. Department of Education has announced new awards to help recruit, prepare, develop, and retain a strong, effective and diverse teacher workforce for classrooms across the country through the Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) grant program. This year’s investment includes 22 new five-year grants totaling $24.8 million through its TQP program. The award recipients represent IHEs and national nonprofits, including three HBCUs and one MSI.

App State to Open Lab School at Elkin Elementary

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

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.