Greetings LTEL Members!
This spring I am writing my final newsletter column as the Chair of the LTEL SIG. It has been my honor to lead our group for the last three years! In my final column, I will share some key information in advance of our SIG Business meeting at AERA in Denver. Please note this meeting on your calendar for Saturday evening April 26th! During this meeting we will welcome our incoming LTEL Officers, celebrate LTEL award winners, and engage in a dynamic learning experience with K-12 educational leaders from the Denver area. I draw attention to each of these points in my discussions below.
LTEL Business Meeting/A Night of Engagement with K-12 Leaders and Networking with LTEL Colleagues (With Drinks and Nibbles): LTLE Business Meeting will be held on Saturday evening at AERA beginning at 7pm in the Colorado Convention Center Room 705. Along with our business meeting and consideration of our SIG bylaws, we will be engaging a group of K-12 educational leaders (district and school level) from the Denver area to speak with us about some of their most impactful preparation and development experiences that supported their equity-oriented leadership work. They will also surface the kinds of things that they wished they had learned during their preparation experiences. We’ll also be seeking to learn about their experiences leading for equity-oriented aims within the current national context, and how our leadership preparation programs can support their work moving forward. We will have drinks and charcuterie at our meeting and plan to allocate a bit of time for your networking with fellow LTEL members. PLEASE bring your colleagues or students—we would love to get more individuals connected with our SIG!
Welcome to Incoming LTEL SIG Leadership: We held elections for three roles this winter, and I am excited to publicly share the results from these elections. These individuals will officially move into their new roles at the close of our business meeting at AERA in Denver on Saturday night. Please be sure to come to our Business Meeting to congratulate our incoming SIG leaders.
Congratulations to each of you, and I look forward to working with you in the coming years as I transition into the role of Past Chair!
I would also like to thank Dr. Jennifer Clayton, Professor, from George Washington University for her service as Member at Large and Dr. Jo Beth Jimerson, William L. and Betty F. Adams Chair of Education, from Texas Christian University for her service as our Secretary for the last three years.
Recent LTEL Learning Event as Part of LTL’s 5-Year Strategy: You will recall from past newsletters that I have reported on LTEL Visioning work that established goals for our SIG in 5 broad areas. Several of these areas of work relates to creating a learning community within LTEL that can support faculty and preparation programs. This spring we held another learning event for LTEL members focused on learning about AI for use by faculty. Dr. John Critelli led this session. He is the Director of Grants Development and Administration at the Office of Educational Leadership Learning (OELL) at Florida Atlantic University, where he also leads as Program Director for the FAU-Broward County Public Schools EQUIP Partnership Program. We expect to continue learning in this area during 2025. Thanks Dr. Critelli for your contributions to this year’s LTEL learning!
LTEL 2024 Awards: I am pleased to announce two award winners for 2024 LTEL awards.
Dr. Mariela Rodriguez: We are pleased to present the LTEL 2025 Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award in Service to Dr. Mariela Rodriguez. Dr. Rodriguez serves as a Professor in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies department at University of Texas at San Antonio. The Committee noted Dr. Rodriguez as a quintessential servant leader whose impact is evident at her institution, in her regional community, and across the educational leadership preparation community at large.
Dr. Mario Jackson: We are pleased to present LTELs Robert Kottkamp Outstanding Dissertation Award to Dr. Mario Jackson. The dissertation award also recognizes the contributions by former SIG Chair Robert Kottkamp (emeritus professor at Hofstra University) and co-founder of the UCEA/LTEL SIG Taskforce on Evaluating Leadership Preparation Programs. Dr. Jackson is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies at Florida State University. His major research explores the equity-oriented efforts of principal preparation programs across several areas of their operations including curricula and pedagogical practices, internship, recruitment and admission. Dr. Jackson completed his dissertation while at North Carolina State University and Dr. Lisa Bass served as his Dissertation Chair.
Thanks to everyone who supported the nomination and review process for this year’s awards competitions.
LTEL Visioning: I am reminding our LTEL community that the Executive Committee continues to engage in efforts to strategically move our organization forward in relation to 5 goals:
Related to Goal #4, I am encouraging everyone in our SIG to consider connecting your colleagues and students to our SIG. Be sure to tell your colleagues about our SIG and our work and invite them to join. They can learn more about our SIG at our website: https://www.aera.net/SIG129/LTEL-SIG-129
We are continuing to plan for strategies that will be enacted related to each of our goals, and we will use the LTEL listserv and newsletters to provide updates. If you are interested in collaborating with us as we devise and enact strategies, can you please contact Dr. Erin Anderson who is our incoming LTL Chair: erin.anderson249@du.edu
Environmental Scan for Research/Resources of Value to LTEL Members: As I have done throughout my term as LTEL Chair, I want to draw your attention to several settings that have research/resources that are likely to be of interest to you and members of your program faculty.
Research: Please be sure to check out the special issue of Education Sciences: Strengthening Educational Leadership Preparation and Development at the following url:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/education/special_issues/8C3YJR8F7F
There are now a set of 7 articles that focus on strengthening leadership preparation and development. We expect roughly 14 articles to eventually be published through this special issue. Articles are published online and immediately available as they are accepted (so continue to go back to this online repository for new publications over the next several months).
Leadership Framework and Learning Resources: In my last newsletter I drew attention to a recently launched national technical assistance center called Lead IDEA that is focused on supporting the preparation and development of birth to 5 and PK-12 leaders who can effectively support children with disabilities. You can learn about the Lead IDEA work and resources at the center’s website: https://lead-idea.org/
There are several resources (or sets of resources) on this website that are likely to be of high value to you/your preparation program. This center has developed a leadership competency framework called IDEA Leadership Essentials that specifies the key areas of leadership practice for school leaders who are acting to robustly enact IDEA in their schools. You can find this leadership competency framework at the following link: https://lead-idea.org/idea-essential
A second resource that has been developed by the center in collaboration with CEEDAR is a Special Educator Retention Navigator. This tool is designed to help school leaders consider and effectively respond to six pressing educator retention issues. You can locate this resource at the following link: https://lead-idea.org/navigator/retention
Lastly, this center has posted a variety of resources that focus on supporting school leaders with IDEA implementation. You can find this catalogue of resources (e.g., podcasts, learning modules, ppts, handouts) at the following link: https://lead-idea.org/resources
I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the leadership team for the LTEL SIG as Chair over the last three years and I will continue to be deeply engaged in our SIG from my new past-Chair over the next three years. I am sending my best wishes to everyone for the remainder of the spring semester! I hope to see you at AERA in Denver!
ShelbyDr. Shelby CosnerDr. Morrill M. Hall Endowed Chair in Educational AdministrationDepartment of Lifelong Education, Administration, and PolicyMary Frances Early College of EducationUniversity of Georgiahttps://people.coe.uga.edu/shelby-cosner/President-Elect University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA)