AACTE Awards to Honor Leading Scholars, Universities

(Feb. 18, 2015, Washington, D.C.) – The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) is pleased to announce the 2015 recipients of its annual awards for best practice, professional achievement and writing and research. The following universities and individuals will be honored during AACTE’s 67th Annual Meeting in Atlanta, February 27-March 1:

Kansas State University’s College of Education will receive the 2015 AACTE Best Practice Award in Support of Global and International Teacher Education. A model for global diversity education throughout the institution, Kansas State wins praise in particular for its Teaching English as a Second Language “Go Teacher” program, an award-winning, multifaceted program of professional education for practicing Ecuadorian teachers, as well as for its community impact through its network of 22 professional development schools across three diverse districts.

Texas Christian University’s College of Education will receive the 2015 AACTE Best Practice Award in Support of Multicultural Education and Diversity for its Early Childhood through Grade 6 program. This program prepares every teacher candidate for certification in English as a second language, bilingual or special education and boasts extensive study-abroad opportunities. It develops new teachers’ understanding, confidence and commitment to work in urban elementary schools with diverse populations in terms of culture, language, demographics, ethnicity, race and exceptionality. The program’s carefully planned organization and structure hold promise for ease of replication in other settings.

Pamela Grossman, dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, will receive the 2015 AACTE Edward C. Pomeroy Award for Outstanding Contributions to Teacher Education. One of the nation’s foremost scholars of teaching and teacher education, Grossman is widely published and frequently collaborates with experts outside her discipline on cutting-edge, creative projects. She has served on the executive boards of the National Academy of Education, the Spencer Foundation and the American Educational Research Association. She previously held endowed chairs at Stanford University and at the University of Washington.

Mary Brownell and Paul Sindelar of the University of Florida will receive the 2015 David G. Imig Award for Distinguished Achievement in Teacher Education. Following decades of successful collaboration on other major national projects studying and supporting special education teachers, Brownell and Sindelar in 2014 co-founded the University of Florida’s Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability and Reform (CEEDAR) Center. This center provides technical assistance to states, addressing alignment of professional learning systems based on research, for developing teachers to prepare students with disabilities to achieve college- and career-ready standards. CEEDAR is a cooperative project of the university and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs, which has already invested $25 million in the center.

Nel Noddings, Lee Jacks Professor of Education Emerita at Stanford University, will receive the 2015 AACTE Outstanding Book Award for Education and Democracy in the 21st Century. Published by Teachers College Press, the book brings John Dewey’s work into the current era, exploring the relationship between schooling and civic polity in the age of “disruptions” in education. Noddings challenges educators to discard still-dominant “20th-century thinking” with its heavy-handed focus on accountability and competition, working instead toward larger aims of a cooperative global democracy. Author of 19 books and hundreds of articles and chapters on a variety of topics, Noddings is past president of the National Academy of Education, the Philosophy of Education Society and the John Dewey Society.

Kavita Kapadia Matsko of the University of Chicago and Karen Hammerness of the American Museum of Natural History will receive the 2015 AACTE Outstanding Journal of Teacher Education Article Award for their article “Unpacking the ‘Urban’ in Urban Teacher Education: Making a Case for Context-Specific Preparation,” published in the March/April 2014 issue of the journal. The authors examine how the University of Chicago’s Urban Teacher Education Program specifically addresses the contextual features of a partner school district, providing detailed analysis of the program’s investment in a pedagogy centered on “what it means to use knowledge about the environment affecting the child to tailor instruction—an important teaching tool for any setting.”

David Stroupe, assistant professor of science education at Michigan State University, will receive the 2015 AACTE Outstanding Dissertation Award for his study “Students Drive Where I Go Next”: Ambitious Practice, Beginning Teacher Learning and Classroom Epistemic Communities, completed at the University of Washington under the advisement of Professor Mark Windschitl. Reviewers commended the premise of the study—which examines ambitious practice of novice science teachers—as one in which “teachers’ work is guided by a repertoire of instructional practices that enable them to adapt and innovate pedagogical routines and tools to meet students’ emerging needs.”

For more information on AACTE’s awards program, visit www.aacte.org.

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AACTE: The Leading Voice on Educator Preparation

The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education is a national alliance of educator preparation programs dedicated to high-quality, evidence-based preparation that assures educators are ready to teach all learners on Day 1. Its over 800 member institutions represent public and private colleges and universities in every state, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Guam. AACTE leads the field in advocacy and capacity building by promoting innovation and effective practices as critical to reforming educator preparation. For more information, visit www.aacte.org.