September 2013

Division K held its Fifth Annual Summit on Teacher Education at AERA headquarters September 12–13, with a special focus on exploring innovative approaches to addressing current challenges and sharing information on promising research, practice, and policy.

The Summit was attended by approximately 30 scholars in teacher education and relevant leaders in practice and policy communities. The meeting was chaired by Etta Hollins, Division K's immediate past-chair. A. Lin Goodwin, who took the reins as vice president in May, was also present.

Sylvia Lyles, director for academic improvement and teacher quality programs at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, presented on the Obama administration’s efforts and priorities in several key P–12 education areas, including preschool development and high school redesign grant programs, expansion of teacher preparation programs, and strengthening of state longitudinal data systems.

Representatives from the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP)—including President James Cibulka; Senior Vice President for Accreditation and Administration Deborah Eldridge; and Senior Vice President for Engagement, Research, and Development Mark LaCelle-Peterson—gave an overview of CAEP’s Transformation Initiative (TI).  

The initiative is one of three pathways that an educator preparation provider (EPP) seeking CAEP accreditation can choose to complete its standards-focused self-study. The TI pathway requires a rigorous research investigation of a chosen aspect of educator preparation to inform the profession and/or offer research-proven models for replication of promising practices. The initiative gives an EPP the opportunity to focus on the improvement of the profession using research on its own successful practices.

Representatives of Evangel University (Colleen Hardy, chair of the education department) and East Carolina University (Linda Patriarca, dean of the College of Education; and Diana Lys, director of assessment and accreditation) were on hand to discuss their institutions’ experiences with the TI pathway.