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SHEEO Initiative Focuses on Practice at HBCUs to Increase Teacher Diversity

image of teacher in a school hallway

As the nation’s classrooms become more diverse, research has demonstrated that developing a more diverse teaching workforce is imperative to meeting the needs of all students. Efforts are under way across the nation to identify successful strategies for increasing the recruitment and retention of teachers of color, especially men of color, into the education workforce. Organizations including AACTE and the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) are among those leading such efforts.

At AACTE, this work includes the Black, Hispanic, and Latino Male Teacher Initiative Networked Improvement Community (NIC), the AACTE Holmes Program, and the Diversified Teaching Workforce: Recruitment and Retention Topical Action Group. Each of these initiatives is focused on increasing educator diversity by identifying and implementing practice that supports degree attainment and teacher certification. The NIC is currently developing a conceptual framework paper to highlight some of these strategies and plans to release the paper at the 2018 AACTE Annual Meeting.

The Need for Data Regarding Educator Shortages

AACTE is partnering with the American Association for Employment in Education (AAEE) to increase input from educator preparation providers in the organization’s annual teacher supply and demand survey. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.

The current shortage of educators is no longer a myth. Data from several reports, including the American Association for Employment in Education (AAEE) Educator Supply and Demand Report 2016-17, show that in numerous certification areas in most areas of the country, there are not enough well-qualified candidates to fill educator vacancies. And even in states where the demand for full-time teachers is not as severe as in other states, there is a critical shortage of substitute teachers.

Briefing Spotlights Unmet Professional Development Needs of CTE Teachers

Panelists Ruth Neild (Director, Philadelphia Education Research Consortium), Jon Graft (Superintendent/CEO, Butler Tech, OH), and Carri Risner (Chef Instructor & Lead Teacher, Columbia Area Career Center, MO) participate in a Q & A session with moderator Elyse Eidman-Aadahl (Executive Director, National Writing Project) during a briefing October 26 in Washington, DC. Photo courtesy of ACTE.

 

A briefing hosted last week by the National Writing Project and the Association for Career & Technical Education (ACTE) highlighted some of the unique challenges facing career and technical education (CTE) teachers, calling attention to their need for better training and support as they enter the classroom.

Panelists at the briefing emphasized that many CTE teachers are career changers and lack the support and pedagogical preparation of a more traditionally trained educator. Describing the acclimation of these teachers to the classroom and the skills they need to acquire on the job as “drinking water from a fire hose,” panelists called for targeted professional development to help career-changing CTE teachers bridge the gap between their technical knowledge and the academic and pedagogical skills they need to succeed as educators. The speakers also called on policy makers to invest in supports for CTE educators to help these programs ensure their students obtain the skills that meet the needs of a growing job market.

How Do High-Performing Education Systems Develop Their Principals?

A new international-comparison study sheds light on important factors in the development of school leaders in selected "high-performing" systems around the world. The study, sponsored by the National Center on Education and the Economy’s Center on International Education Benchmarking, highlights commonalities in principal preparation among the systems whose students scored highest on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey: Hong Kong, Ontario, Shanghai, and Singapore.

Australian researcher Ben Jensen authored the report, Preparing to Lead: Lessons in Principal Development From High-Performing Education Systems. Its overarching message is that successful education systems provide current and future school leaders with preparation that is specifically tailored to the real-world problems and contexts they will face in their work environments.

“The best programs combine a detailed understanding of principals’ roles and responsibilities with a deep grounding in the system’s particular philosophy and objectives for how schools get better,” Jensen said.

One Size Does Not Fit All: What It Means to Serve All Learners

The evolution of a teacher candidate into a professional educator does not occur overnight. Rather, it is a slow, steady, empowering journey that unfolds over several years, with teacher candidates receiving support and encouragement from mentor teachers and university faculty alike. Through it all, teacher candidates learn just as many lessons as they teach, ideally with one overarching principle repeatedly impressed upon them: that they must serve all learners.

This is no small task, as today’s educators enter increasingly diverse schools. This diversity creates wonderful learning opportunities for all, but it also presents its fair share of challenges. Teachers will encounter students with disabilities. They will encounter students who are gifted and talented. They will encounter students from low-income families. They will encounter students from various racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as students who do not speak English as a first language.

Marist to Diversify Education Pipeline Through New Holmes Cadets Program

New York’s Marist College is the latest AACTE member institution to join the Holmes Program. For information about how to join the program, contact Tim Finklea at tfinklea@aacte.org. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.

This summer, the Education Department at Marist College partnered with the Beacon City School District to join AACTE’s Holmes Cadet Program. Marist College, located in New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley, is committed to student success, innovation, and providing for social good. Joining the Holmes Cadet network supported Marist’s efforts to diversify the teacher pipeline, while connecting them to a national network of students and faculty who were passionate about the same cause.

Teaching Workforce Still Mostly White and Female; More Diversity Supports Needed

Last week, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released initial data from the 2015-2016 National Teacher and Principal Survey, providing the latest nationwide snapshot of the characteristics of public school teachers. (Results of the school-level survey are being released today, and principal-level data are available here.) The “First Look” report on the teacher survey (download PDF here) shows the education workforce has grown slightly more female (77% compared to 76%) and slightly less White (80% compared to 82%) than it was 4 years ago – although NCES cautions that comparisons are somewhat imprecise because some of the questions were worded differently or drew on different sources than in the former Schools and Staffing Survey, on which the new survey is based.

A recent article in Education Week highlights key data and comparisons between this survey and the last, noting that the education profession has made some advancements in diversifying the teaching workforce. However, these modest gains may be more conditional than intentional, and the survey spotlights continued trouble spots such as low pay and uneven assignment of teacher expertise. What this article says to me is that we must continue to work every day to make teaching a worthy career option, valued for its contributions to the democratic fabric of our society – especially among the most underrepresented demographics. As a profession, we have an ongoing imperative to attract highly motivated, diverse, innovative, smart educators into the profession and support them with programs rich in the pedagogy and content that will serve the nation’s young people well into the future.

Commentary: The U.S. Must Focus on Improving Teacher Retention

The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of AACTE.

As educators, we are responsible for preparing students for life after graduation. Thus, many of our debates focus on optimizing the student experience: things we should do – or not do – to create a well-rounded individual who is ready to take on his or her next challenge, whether it’s a job, college, or the sixth grade. Far too often, however, we focus entirely on the people who sit in classrooms and neglect the people who stand in front of them. Educational policies must make sense for students, yes, but they must make sense for teachers, too.

How to Grow Your Own: Ideas From NEA/AFT Summit on Teacher Diversity, Social Justice

Last month, more than 150 educators and organizational leaders convened in Washington, DC, for a summit on strategies to recruit and retain a more diverse teaching workforce. Hosted by the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the “Grow Your Own: Teacher Diversity and Social Justice Summit” offered a series of presentations and panel discussions focused on efforts to recruit educators from local communities.

One panel focused on educator preparation programs and included faculty from several universities across the nation. They discussed the challenges and successes of their candidates and the particular approaches of successful grow-your-own (GYO) programs, from community-centered recruitment to unique financial incentives and other supports.

July Webinar to Highlight Local Action to Diversify Teacher Pipeline

On July 27, AACTE will host the final installment of a four-part webinar series highlighting the experiences and findings of each of the 10 institutions in the AACTE Black and Hispanic/Latino Male Teachers Initiative Networked Improvement Community (NIC). The webinar, “Diversifying the Teacher Pipeline at CSU-Fullerton and Northeastern Illinois University: Lessons From AACTE’s NIC,” will be held on Thursday, July 27, 2:00-3:00 p.m. EDT.

In this webinar, presenters from California State University, Fullerton, and Northeastern Illinois University will discuss the how their teams applied improvement science in the context of the NIC, as well as at their own institutions. The discussion will feature specific initiatives and strategies developed by both institutions’ teams and will demonstrate how NIC-developed approaches can be adapted locally to advance a common goal – in this case, to increase the percentage of Black and Hispanic/Latino men receiving initial teaching certification through educator preparation programs.

Using NICs to Engage More Minority Males in STEM Learning

A member of the North Carolina A&T State University team shares its work during the May event at Morgan State University.
Abiodun Fasoro of Central State University discusses his campus’ minority male STEM program during the Verizon Innovative Learning Showcase.

Last month, I had the privilege of participating in the Building a Networked Improvement Community Around Engaging Minority Males in STEM Workshop at Morgan State University. The workshop focused on advancing the work of the Early STEM Engagement for Minority Males (eSEM) Initiative, a network of 16 minority-serving institutions (MSIs).

Led by Morgan State and in partnership with Verizon Innovative Learning Programs, SRI Education, the National CARES Mentoring Network, and local school districts, eSEM is a growing collaborative seeking to address STEM achievement challenges and improve outcomes for middle school minority male students through the development of a Networked Improvement Community (NIC). The initiative is supported through grants from the National Science Foundation and includes the following universities:

Rowan Develops Male Teachers With IMPACT

As this spring’s graduates march across stages and celebrate their newly earned teaching licenses, 14 students in the College of Education at Rowan University (NJ) still have a few years of work before heading to their first teaching jobs. But as participants in Rowan’s Project Increasing Male Practitioners and Classroom Teachers (Project IMPACT), they are well on their way to not only graduating but also remedying the persistent shortage of male teachers of color.

Majoring in education fields from early childhood to music, math, science, and more, these young men from the South Jersey area receive an annual $4,000 scholarship, mentoring and study supports, and hands-on experiences in schools in exchange for their commitment to return as teachers for at least 3 years in high-need public schools. The program is designed to equip candidates with the skills and supports to persist in their high-attrition field while effectively enhancing student learning.

Research-to-Practice Spotlight Turns to RISE at St. John’s University

I am thrilled to introduce the St. John’s University (NY) School of Education as the next featured institution in the AACTE Research-to-Practice Spotlight series. In this latest focus on exemplary models of clinical practice, we highlight the work of the Residential Internship for St. John’s Educators (RISE) program in Queens, New York. This partnership with surrounding school districts aims to develop the very best teachers for local classrooms, a mission to which both the university and the school district are committed.

The first video in the series is now posted in the Innovation Exchange, introducing the RISE program’s yearlong internships and focusing on the importance of relationship-building and a shared professional community. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be publishing additional videos and blog summaries to highlight what AACTE staff learned during our visit to the St. John’s campus and partner sites.

Hone Your Leadership Skills at AACTE Academy June 25-29

Are you a new dean or department chair – or simply looking to advance your career as an academic administrator? Get off to a strong start with AACTE’s Leadership Academy this June in Providence, Rhode Island.

The annual Leadership Academy, a popular professional development event for new administrators, has been reimagined for 2017 to provide even more of what you need. Our experienced faculty will guide your learning and provide beneficial information and strategies around allocating resources, managing conflict, and promoting your programs and institutions. To learn more about this year’s content, be sure to visit the detailed 2017 Leadership Academy schedule online.