North Carolina
Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators

N C - A C T E

N E W S

WAYNE'S RAMBLINGS June 2008

Items of Interest by Wayne Dillon, NC-ACTE Executive Secretary
To download the document, click on RAMBLINGS.

Greetings!! I hope all are having a great summer.  Can you believe we are already halfway through June??? I would like to take this opportunity to update you on some of the happenings impacting Teacher Education in North Carolina. The Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) is holding its 2008 Summer Conference at the Hyatt Regency Washington in Washington, DC, on August 2-6. Please use the following link for more information or to register.http://www.ate1.org/pubs/ATE_Washington.cfm .

The NC-ACTE Fall Forum is scheduled for September 18-19, 2008, at the Hilton North Raleigh, in Raleigh, NC. Please mark your calendars now, and look elsewhere on the NC-ACTE web site for additional information on this must-attend event.

The Southeastern Regional Association of teacher Educators (SRATE) will hold its 55th Annual Conference in Myrtle Beach, SC on November 7-9, 2008. The theme of the conference is “Educators Accepting the Challenge of Closing the Achievement Gap.” The deadline for proposals for presentations is June 23.  For move information contact Emma Savage at esavage@coastal.edu.

Don’t forget about the 89th Annual Meeting of ATE in Dallas February 14-18, 2009. I hope this is already on your calendars, and North Carolina will be represented in Dallas. For more information, go to the ATE website at www.ate1.org. A number of recent State Board of Education actions will have implications for preparation programs:

• New Standards for School Executive Preparation Programs have been adopted. These standards outline what school executive preparation programs must provide in order to be approved by the State Board of Education.

• The NCDPI Licensure Section has been reorganized. The restructuring will provide streamlined communication for stakeholders, and will decrease the processing time for licenses by eliminating unnecessary procedural steps. Self-service features will be incorporated, and a “one-call, one answer” system will be established. These changes should result in more efficient processing of licensure requests.

• A new School Executive: Principal Evaluation instrument has been adopted, along with mandated  statewide training on the use of the new instrument. NCDPI, McREL, and New Teacher Center staff conducted two in-depth training sessions in May resulting in a cadre of trainers to provide the training in June and July. These training sessions for principals, superintendents, supervisors, and teacher leaders are currently being conducted across the state. Hopefully, some of you who have administrator preparation programs have found a way to become involved in this training. Beginning with the 2008-2009 school year, principals are to be evaluated annually using the North Carolina School Executive Evaluation Rubric.

• Congratulations to Appalachian State University, Brevard College, Catawba College, Chowan University, Mars Hill College, Meredith College, Montreat College, North Carolina Wesleyan College, UNC-Pembroke, and Western Carolina University for achieving State Board of Education Continuing Approval for their educator preparation programs.  In addition, the Board approved Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ alternative school executive licensure program: “New Leaders For New Schools.”

• A new Alternative Licensure Program for Lateral Entry Teachers in Guilford County has been approved by the Board. The program offers lateral entry candidates the option of selecting a 19-month long, locally customized licensure and support program as an alternative to a university affiliated program or Regional Alternative Licensure Center program of study. The program features a rigorous set of entry requirements, an alignment to North Carolina’s new teaching standards, a process that affords customization while ensuring quality, a rigorous program evaluation, and a collaborative component with Guilford County Technical Community College. This program, as well as other similar models, may offer teacher preparation programs another option for collaborative relationships that will allow lateral entry candidates a means other than traditional course work for demonstrating some competencies. This and similar programs will bear watching.

• A new item under discussion by the Board will create a Health and Physical Education teaching license. This will allow the holder to teach either content area and not be considered out of field. Consideration is being given to awarding the combined license to current holders of the Physical Education license based on the recommendation of an employing Local Education Agency. There will be further discussion of this item at later meetings.

March 2008 Edition

In this second edition I would like to share some items from activities in which I have participated as a representative of NC-ACTE. These items have been selected from my participation in the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) National Meeting in New Orleans in February, the monthly meetings of the State Board of Education (SBE), and periodic meetings of the North Carolina Independent College and University (NCICU) Deans of Education. 

• The theme for the 88th Annual Meeting of ATE in New Orleans was “Multiple Realities in Teacher Education: Exemplars that Address Dilemmas, Conundrums, and Processes.” The program included sessions addressing a myriad of topics around this theme. Some of the most interesting for me were those addressing issues related to accreditation, dispositions, teacher education challenges, bold new directions for teacher education, mentoring interns, teacher preparation as public pedagogy, and the role of the two-year college in teacher education.
  
  
• The ATE Summer Conference is scheduled for August 2-6, 2008, in Washington, DC, and will be addressing “The Global Imperative: Educating and Assessing the Whole Child, Teachers, and Community. A Call For Proposals is on this website, or can be accessed on the ATE website at www.ate1.org.
  
  
• An interesting exhibit in the Exhibit Hall at ATE was staged by ABC Teach. Colleges and Universities affiliating with this organization may give teacher preparation candidates opportunities to download teaching materials, customize their own worksheets, access a clip art library, and access creative materials for outfitting their own classrooms.  For more information, contact Sheryl Schreefel at www.abcteach.com.
    
  
• The 89th Annual ATE Meeting will be held at the Hyatt Regency Dallas on February 14-18, 2009, and will address the same topic as the Summer Conference highlighted above.
  
  
• If you have not seen the Standards for Teacher Educators, you may review them by going to www.ate1.org/pubs/Home.cfm, and using the quicklink to access them.
  

Closer to home . . .

• The State Board of Education’s 21st Century Professionals Committee deals with items related to the preparation of educational professionals. Among the items dealt with at their meeting on March 5, they:

• Revised the policy on eligibility for the State Teacher of the Year;
• Adopted a Praxis II test for adding licensure in Latin to an existing license;
• Discussed the Standards for School Executive Preparation Programs;
• Discussed the addition of an Elementary Level License for Reading, English-as-a-Second Language, and Special Education: Cross Categorical;
• Discussed the 2008 Teacher Working Conditions Survey;
• Received an update on the New School Executive Evaluation Instrument, including the deployment plan for implementation and training for using this instrument;
• Discussed issues facing Local Education Agencies in staffing schools with Highly Qualified Teachers; and
• Discussed the process for establishing a committee to develop guidelines for equating non-teaching work experience with graduate pay.

The New School Executive Evaluation Instrument Deployment Plan offers opportunities for teacher educators to become involved through participation in the training of cadres of trainers for the training this summer, as well as serving on advisory groups that will monitor the implementation of this instrument. If you are interested, contact Dr. Steve Greene, Senior Professional Development Coordinator in the Department of Public Instruction.

• Another opportunity for service and collaboration with local school systems is to identify ways to assist them in helping more of their currently employed teachers to become highly qualified. This is a critical need in LEA’s currently having difficulty in meeting the Highly Qualified Teaching Requirement under the NCLB legislation. This can begin with dialog with LEA’s in your service area. Danny Holloman in the Department of Public Instruction is coordinating efforts to assist these school systems.
    
• The NCICU Education Deans met on February 29. Included in their agenda were discussions of the following:

• A presentation by Dr. Kim Metcalf of the latest draft of the Standards Based Evaluation Instrument for Preservice Teacher Candidates currently being developed by McREL. The group had an opportunity to provide input on the format and assessment categories for the new instrument.
• Content Area Standards Revision. Panels of educators are currently being formed to revise these standards.  Revisions will be sent to colleges and universities for reaction when the panels have completed their revisions.  The timeline calls for presentation of the revisions to the State Board of Education in June, with anticipated approval by that body in July of this year. Because of the extremely short timeline, there will be a short turn-around time for college/university input.
• Participants were asked to think about possible advantages of expanding the Middle Grades Teaching License to prepare teachers to work in grades 6-12, or possibly grades 6-14, which would allow holders to work in two-year college teacher preparation programs. Discussion of this item will continue at later meetings.

I hope you will find some items of interest in this edition of Ramblings.  Best wishes for a successful ending of the 2007-2008 school year as you continue to make significant contributions to Teacher Education Excellence in North Carolina.

WD

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Proposals Being Accepted for ATE's Summer Conference in Washington
Submitted by David Ritchey
Executive Secretary of ATE dritchey@ate1.org

To ATE Members: Proposals are now being accepted for the 2008 Summer Conference of the Association of Teacher Educators, scheduled for August 2-6, 2008, at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. Theme for the Summer Conference as selected by ATE President Paul Paese is The Global Imperative: Educating and Assessing the Whole Child, Teachers, and Community. This should be an outstanding Summer Conference; keynote speakers will include Mary Futrell, dean of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at The George Washington University and a former Virginia Education Association and National Education Association president; Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools and founder and former president of The New Teacher Project; and Tom Carroll, President of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future. A pre-conference workshop will be led by Carol Ann Tomlinson, Program Coordinator for the Educational Psychology/Gifted Education program area at Curry School of Education, University of Virginia.

The deadline for accepting proposals has been extended to April 4. Follow the link below to submit your proposal online:

http://www.ate1.org/pubs/Call_for_Proposals.cfm

If you can't see the link or have difficulty following it, go to ATE's home page or click the link on the left of this page, www.ate1.org, and click on the link in the right-hand "Quick Links" menu bar. Also on ATE's website is the approved version of Standards for Teacher Educators (http://www.ate1.org/pubs/Revised_Standards_.cfm) and the Call for Manuscripts for Yearbook XVIII (http://www.ate1.org/pubs/ATE_Yearbook_XVIII.cfm).

David A. Ritchey, Ph.D., CAE, Executive Director
Association of Teacher Educators
Mail: P.O. Box 793
Manassas, VA 20113
Office: 8503 Euclid Ave., Suite 4
Manassas Park, VA 20111-2400
Phone: 703-331-0911
Fax: 703-331-3666
dritchey@ate1.org

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WAYNE'S RAMBLINGS January 2008

Items of Interest from the NC State Board of Education
by Wayne Dillon, NC-ACTE Executive Secretary

The major NC-ACTE Executive Secretary activity for January was attendance at the monthly meeting of the State Board of Education in Raleigh on January 8-10. The following SBE-approved actions at that meeting have relevance for North Carolina Teacher Educators:

• Appointments to the State Evaluation Committee on Teacher Education

The following were appointed to the SEC: Dr. Patrice Petroff, Assistant Professor, Queens University; Dr. Barry Redmond, Superintendent, Newton-Conover City Schools; Dr. Audrey Toney, Assistant Superintendent, Pender County Schools; Roy Beamon, Teacher, West Montgomery High School; Tom Turner, Teacher, McDowell High School; and Dr. Joyce Edwards, Dean, Pfeiffer University School of Education. Dr. Redmond was reappointed chairman.

• Program Approval Recommendations from the State Evaluation Committee on Teacher Education

Preparation programs at East Carolina University, Elon University, Fayetteville State University, North Carolina A & T State University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University, Saint Andrews Presbyterian College, Saint Augustine’s College, and Winston-Salem State University were approved.

• Revision of the Teacher Education Program Approval Process

The approved revisions will create an annual review cycle that is aligned with the evaluation instruments being developed for teachers and school executives. The revisions also eliminate some of the barriers to teacher recruitment and preparation, and incorporate 21st century skills and assessments into the programs.

• Annual Report on the Reasons Teachers Leave the Profession

The report indicated a teacher turnover rate for 2006-07 of 12.31 percent—a slight decrease from the 2005-06 rate of 12.58 percent.  The major reasons reported included: “Resigned to teach elsewhere (22.20 percent); Retirement (16.48 percent); and Resignation due to family relocation (13.35 percent).  Department staff were directed to revise procedures to collect data that more accurately reflects what is reported by teachers upon departure.

• Establish an Additional Regional Alternative Licensure Center

A fourth Regional Alternative Licensure Center will be established in a location selected based on demonstrated need as determined by the volume of alternative licenses granted. Resources to fund the center will be available by July 1, 2008.

• Financial Incentives for the State and Regional Teachers of the Year

Teachers of the Year who are given a 6 percent salary increment for the year of their tenure will be allowed to keep the increment and will be offered an option for 11 or 12 months of employment if they return to the classroom upon completing their tenure as Teacher of the Year.

Additional relevant discussion (but not action) agenda items that will be addressed in future State Board of Education meetings include:

• Professional Development for School Leaders;
• Clarification of the Lateral Entry Licensure Policy;
• New Administrator Evaluation Instruments Deployment Plan; and
• Non-Teaching Work Experience Credit

(click to download Dillon's letter to membership)

DATES TO REMEMBER:

AACTE Future Annual Meeting & Exhibits Dates and Sites (click to follow link)

2008: February 7-10, Hilton New Orleans Riverside
2009: February 6-9, Hyatt Regency Chicago/Chicago, IL
2010: February 26-March 1, Hilton Atlanta
2011: February 24-27, Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego
2012: February 10-13, Hyatt Regency Chicago
2013: February 9-12, Hilton New York

On this page newsworthy items from members, state education agencies and organizations, and teacher education institutions will be posted. NC-ACTE members can submit items of interest, announcements, and other items to Randy Kohlenberg. The content will change when information is available.

Autumn on the Tar River