Thousands of Teacher Educators Convene at AACTE Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida

(March 2, 2017, Washington D.C.) – The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) kicked off its 69th Annual Meeting today bringing together thousands of teacher educators from across the nation. Based at the Tampa Convention Center in downtown Tampa, the conference, themed “Acting As One: the Power of the Professional Community,” offers attendees hundreds of concurrent sessions to choose from that explore issues important to shaping the future of education. Teacher shortages, recruitment and retention, community engagement, clinical practice, and teacher diversity are some of the several pressing topics that education leaders have begun tackling at the event.

“We are the engine of a democratic society for our students,” said Sharon P. Robinson, Ed.D., president and CEO of AACTE, in her opening remarks. “The communities we create for our students to learn must model the communities they must live in – inclusive, open to questions, and willing to invite all who are willing to participate. In this community we flourish, acting as one.”

The sessions are organized into four strands:

• The Knowledge Base for Teaching and Learning
• Community Engagement on Problems of Practice
• Social Responsibility: Access and Equity
• Continuous Improvement and Accountability

This afternoon, the opening session featured guest speaker Shaun Harper, Ph.D. He is professor and executive director of the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education at the University of Pennsylvania. In his presentation titled, “Ed Schools and the Mis-Education of White America,” he discussed diversity, equity, and race issues in education.

“We cannot do racial equity and do it well if we cannot raise race questions,” said Harper, noting the inadequacy of assuming that colleges of education “can effectively prepare teachers to serve racially diverse learners by talking generically about diversity and multiculturalism and not explicitly talking about race, racism, and racist practices, structures and implicit biases.”

The closing session on March 4 will feature guest speaker Linda Darling-Hammond, Ed.D. She is president of the Learning Policy Institute, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University and Faculty Director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. Darling-Hammond will present on the latest research and best practices for developing effective teachers and the teacher pipeline.

The conference is made possible by premier and featured sponsors: LiveText, Edthena, the Evaluation Systems Group of Pearson, Horace Mann Companies, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, Taskstream, TK20, and University of Nevada Las Vegas, as well as several other generous supporters.

Registration is still open. Three-day general admission: $525 for members, $710 for nonmembers and $120 for students. To register, visit the Registration Desk located in the Tampa Convention Center. For more information, visit aacte.org and access the full list of sessions and events at the AACTE Online Event Planner.

Media interviews are available for featured speakers, AACTE senior officials and select AACTE member institutions in attendance. To register for media credentials, send your name, title, name of media organization or publication, address, phone number and e-mail address to Jerrica Thurman at jthurman@aacte.org.

About AACTE

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 profession-ready as they enter the classroom. The over 800 member institutions include public and private colleges and universities in every state, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Guam. Through advocacy and capacity building, AACTE promotes innovation and effective practices that strengthen educator preparation. Learn more at www.aacte.org.

###