AACTE,the Profession,and the Future

Abstract

Introduction

In this first issue for Volume 75 of the Journal of Teacher Education (JTE), the authors celebrate the journal’s 75 years as the flagship publication of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). As leaders of AACTE, and in recognition of JTE’s 75th anniversary, we take stock of the mission-driven work of AACTE by offering a response to current-day sociopolitical, economic, and technological forces that are shifting higher education, public schooling, and the preparation of the educator workforce. AACTE is expanding its capacity to lead and represent educator preparation before all segments of the public as a professional enterprise carrying special responsibilities for the development of competent citizens. This editorial (a) presents an account of the forces significantly shaping educator preparation and (b) highlights AACTE’s recent research publications, policy advocacy, and practice work that is aimed at responding to these forces, thus ensuring the education profession thrives into the future, with AACTE remaining the relevant leader in educator preparation.

Then and Now

Emerging from the Normal School and Teachers Colleges movements, AACTE was founded on February 21, 1948, as the successor to its parent organization, the American Association of Teachers Colleges. An associative organization, AACTE began with 257 college and university members committed to producing teachers for the nation’s common schools. AACTE’s founding father, Charles Hunt, believed that the end of WWII ushered in a “social revolution” (Ducharme & Ducharme, 1998, p. 8) and a new world that necessitated a new understanding about teacher preparation. Remarkably, there is considerable resonance between 1948 (the year of AACTE’s founding) and 2023 (AACTE’s 75th year). In 1948, U.S. President Harry S. Truman was experiencing an avalanche of national and world problems, the themes of which are relevant to 2023. A Washington Post article captured the tumult:

President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal coalition was crumbling. Organized labor was unhappy about postwar policies. [Former Vice President under Roosevelt and Truman’s Secretary of Commerce] Henry Wallace, believing that Truman was too tough on the Russians, was forming the leftist Progressive Party. Southern conservatives, upset over the president’s espousal of civil rights, were rebelling on the right [And, were soon to be called the Dixiecrats]. (Duke, 1988, para. 8)

Today’s turmoil includes societal polarization and divisive and violence-spurring political wrangling; a resurgence of anti-Black violence with rollbacks in voting and civil rights; antisemitism; large-scale workers’ strikes (including teachers, health care professionals, and auto workers); new censorship and book banning laws coming from states (and school boards) seeking to punish PK–12 teachers and college faculty and curtail their teaching certain Black history and literature and any content exploring LGBTQ+ issues, especially those related to gender and sexual identity. All of this is happening nationally, while two large wars are being waged in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, adding to the volatility nationally and globally.

Immigration

There is pervasive anti-immigration legislation aimed at Mexican and Central American refugees, asylum seekers, and others who are crossing the nation’s southern border. According to an Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) study,

States are closely divided between protective laws (12 states with a combined population of 112 million people) and harmful laws (18 states with a combined population of 127 million people), with 24 states that have not yet passed sanctuary or anti-sanctuary policies (with a combined population of 93 million people). (ILRC, 2023, para. 9)

Although the overwhelming majority (84%) of Hispanic PK–12 public school students are American citizens, these students’ citizenship status is often wrongly interrogated and used in anti-immigration rhetoric. By and large, negative sentiments and statements are tied to fervor about national demographic shifts which trend toward more people of color. In the last 10 years (between 2010 and 2021), Hispanic public school enrollment increased from 11.4 million to 14.1 million, while White public school student enrollment decreased from 25.9 million to 22.4 million (Fenwick, 2019). These changes are the largest in the PK–12 public school student population. In this same period, the percentage of Hispanic students increased from 23% to 28%, while the percentage of White students declined from 52% to 45%. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2023), these enrollment patterns are projected to continue into 2031.

Threats to Democracy

The United States is still reeling from divisive political rhetoric that culminated in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to thwart certification of the 2020 presidential election results confirming Democrat Joseph R. Biden as 46th President of the United States. Biden’s election continues to be contested by a sizable portion of the Republican Party, which asserts that the election was stolen from Biden’s predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, despite certified ballot recounts and numerous court rulings to the contrary. This tension is stoking bitter dysfunction on Capitol Hill. As a result of Republication faction wars, the U.S. House of Representatives Speaker was voted out of office after a historically short 9-month tenure—a first in U.S. history. This has left the U.S. House of Representatives without a permanent Speaker for more than a week—also a first in U.S. history. All of this is occurring leading up to a presidential election year—the outcome of which will be determined in November 2024. The United States is not alone among the world’s democracies that are wrangling to survive. According to research published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, “Liberal democracy is in crisis where it was long thought most securely established” (Brechenmacher, 2023, para. 1). In addition, Carnegie reported that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States was one of 130 countries that experienced threats and violations of espoused and constitutionally codified democratic norms.

Brown v. Board of Education Decision and the 2023 Affirmative Action Decision

As JTE marks its 75th year, on the heels of AACTE’s 75th anniversary, the nation commemorates the 70th anniversary of the groundbreaking Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. Despite the historic decision, data show that the faulty implementation of Brown has led to public school resegregation leaving a disproportionate percentage of Black and poor students isolated in racially segregated and underfunded schools (Fenwick, 2022). Despite positive movement on social integration, recently, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in the Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v President and Fellows of Harvard College (2023), potentially undoing decades of progress recruiting and graduating Black and other college students of color. The Court’s decision is causing colleges and universities to change their strategies for balancing student admissions and affirming the value of diversity in their college and university communities. In many sectors (especially in the African American community), the decision is viewed as disheartening, regressive, and harmful to American progress (Fenwick & Swygert, 2023).

COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery

Educators—in colleges, universities, and PK–12 schools—are still recuperating from the COVID-19 pandemic years (2020–2022). According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (2023), “in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges and universities remain pressed to re-evaluate their long- and short-term enrollment management and student support strategies” (para. 1), particularly considering record declines in enrollment and surges in students’ mental health and wellness needs. Not only is higher education having to address record-level mental health and wellness concerns related to depression, anxiety, trauma, and the effects of isolation among college students, PK–12 students are also struggling with the same issues with exacerbating learning losses brought on by pandemic school closures. A study by Harvard University and Stanford University researchers found that “the average U.S. public school student in grades 3-8 lost the equivalent of a half year of learning in math and a quarter of a year in reading” (Fahle etal., 2023, pp. 20–21) and that the loss will not be rectified simply by increasing the pace and length of instructional time. In fact, the researchers found that where and how children live affected their learning loss. In communities with low COVID-19 death rates, high voting rates, and high trust in government, school-aged children experienced less learning loss than those in communities with the opposite indicators.

Between 2020 and 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic presented special challenges (even threats) to states, their educator preparation programs (EPPs), and licensure requirements. With closures of colleges, universities, and PK–12 schools, many teacher candidates were unable to complete the typical prerequisite for licensure—clinical and field experiences in a PK–12 classroom. Colleges, universities, and states scrambled to determine how to adequately address the imminent preparation gap while ensuring teacher candidates would be appropriately prepared. To guide state officials as they developed solutions for the short- and long-term effects of the pandemic, AACTE investigated and analyzed COVID-related state guidance to EPPs. Through this 50-state research study—and with an eye toward maintaining high expectations for quality teaching—AACTE released a set of recommendations included in the recent report, Teaching in the Time of COVID-19: State Recommendations for Educator Preparation Programs and New Teachers (AACTE, 2020b). The report includes an online interactive and real-time map State Actions to Support EPPs and Teacher Candidates During COVID-19 (AACTE, 2020a), which highlighted changes to state policies and practices in four categories: (a) initial licensure and certification, (b) clinical experiences, (c) hiring and induction, and (d) state standards and other program requirements.

Censorship

Curriculums in colleges, universities, and PK–12 schools have also been subject to legislation that is sanctioning faculty who teach certain Black history and literature and LGBTQ+ content related to sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as limiting the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work in public PK–12 and higher education institutions. Reporting on censorship legislation, Education Trust found, “[S]ince 2021, 44 states introduced bills or taken steps toward restricting the teaching of so-called critical race theory (CRT), banning books, and censoring the ways in which race can be discussed in classrooms. And the threats continue” (Education Trust, 2023, para. 2).

Similarly, PEN America confirms that much of the censorship activity is reflected in book bans which “are driven by a confluence of local actors [who are a vocal minority] and state policy” (PEN America, 2023, para. 1). Censorship legislation has been so concerning and dangerous that AACTE devoted its 2022 Washington Week convening (which brings AACTE members and their Congressional representatives together in Washington, DC) to illuminating the problem and crafting strategies with national partners, PEN American and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In addition, in October 2022, AACTE released The State of Education Censorship in Institutions of Higher Ed and Implications for the Field (White, 2022)—a comprehensive overview of proposed and enacted censorship in education impacting educators, students, and training for the next generation of teachers (White, 2022). AACTE continues to assist the field through its work in the Freedom to Learn coalition, advising members on how to work in increasingly challenging state policy environments.

Teacher Shortages

The COVID-19 pandemic and attendant school closures, censorship and book bans, and pressures to recoup PK–12 students’ pandemic-related learning losses have placed teachers under greater scrutiny and pressure. The pandemic exacerbated a long-standing national shortage of teachers. In addition, the pandemic further dissuaded interest in teaching as a profession. In a March 27, 2021, article titled “As Pandemic Upends Teaching, Fewer Students Want to Pursue it,” the reporter notes that “disruptions to education during the pandemic are turning people away from a profession that was already struggling to attract new recruits” (Goldberg, 2021). An Economic Policy Institute (2022) study revealed that the teacher shortage is “not a function of an inadequate number of qualified teachers in the U.S. economy.” Rather, “there are too few qualified teachers willing to work at current compensation levels given the increasingly stressful environment facing teachers” (p. 1).

AACTE helped lead response to the pandemic-induced teacher shortage crisis through its research and policy advocacy. In addition to the previously mentioned 50 state reports on Teaching in the Time of COVID-19, its signature annual report, Colleges of Education: A National Portrait, describes the key trends and challenges in meeting the nation’s need for highly skilled educators. The report offers a comprehensive picture of the nation’s schools, colleges/universities, and departments of education: the work that they do, the people who do that work, and the students they serve. And, AACTE disseminated an issues brief, How Do Education Students Pay for College? (King, 2020), which shares data about and policy recommendations for overcoming the financial challenges and financial disincentives to choose the teaching profession that future educators face.

The data and perspectives in these two policy publications helped inform two pieces of federal legislation—the Educator for America Act (2023) and the American Teacher Act (2022)—both of which have garnered bipartisan support. The Educators for America Act is designed to strengthen the educator workforce by addressing school staffing shortages through funding for programs to recruit, train, support, and retain new cohorts of effective teachers. In addition, the Educators Act would legislate federal funds distributed to states to support innovative EPPs, much needed in this era of deep teacher shortages. The American Teacher Act seeks to ensure that all teachers earn at least $60,000 and are provided yearly adjustments for inflation through new federal grants that incentivize states and school districts to increase the minimum PK–12 teacher salary.

Educator Workforce Diversity

Embedded in the teacher shortage is an educator workforce diversity crisis. Although most PK–12 students are students of color, nearly 40% of the nation’s schools have no teachers of color. The underrepresentation of African American and Hispanic teachers is especially acute. African American and Hispanic teachers make up less than 8% and 11%, respectively, of the nation’s 3.2 million teachers—nearly 70% of whom are White nearly (Gist & Bristol, 2022). In response to this concern, AACTE launched the Consortium for Research-Based and Equitable Assessments (CREA), a 14-state Consortium designed to evaluate cut scores for entrance into EPPs. Specifically, the Consortium sought to examine the processes and considerations that states use to determine cut scores, and how they can be refined to attract, rather than exclude, potential teacher candidates. CREA prioritized focusing on especially constricting the candidate of color pipeline (which has been disproportionately and negatively impacted by the processes used to set licensure examination cutoff scores).

CREA’s work sought to reframe the national dialogue and did so through an AACTE monograph that guided its work, The History, Current Use, And Impact of Entrance And Licensure Examinations Cut Scores On The Teacher-Of-Color Pipeline: A Structural Racism Analysis (Fenwick, 2021c). This publication presents a historical and legal analysis about how licensure examinations and cutoff scores have been used to constrict the teacher of color pipeline. Armed with new knowledge and state partnerships, Consortium members worked to interrogate and recast the use of licensure examination cutoff scores in their states. As a result of the partnership between EPPs, local school districts, and state education agencies, institutional, district, and state policies changed to open more opportunities for students to pursue degrees in education.

Proliferation of Policies Supporting Growth of Teacher Preparation Providers and Programs That are Not University-Based

The one force driving the establishment of AACTE was a “simple desire for order and consistency” (Ducharme & Ducharme, 1998, p. 11) among the numerous organizations competing with one another over issues related to teacher education. That force has grown, not dissipated. Over the last two decades, remarkable growth in EPP providers that are not institutions of higher education (IHE)-based has occurred. Mindful of differences in how state policies guide approval of IHE-based and not-IHE-based providers and programs, the National Academy of Education Steering Committee for Evaluating and Improving Teacher Preparation Programs commissioned AACTE to produce a teacher evaluation system landscape analysis, including a state-by-state summary of the evaluation system components and an analysis of similarities and differences between and among states. This landscape analysis report, A Tale of Two Cities: State Evaluation Systems of Teacher Preparation Program (Fenwick, 2021a), is the first to present information and data about all 50 states’ evaluation standards for teacher preparation providers and programs. Specifically, the provider and program approval processes and standards are listed by state (as defined by the state statute), along with an analysis of the similarities and differences between traditional, alternative route (IHE-based), and alternative route (not IHE-based) programs and providers.

The report also provides six policy recommendations that emerged from analysis about how states evaluate teacher preparation providers and programs. Anchored in its commitment to ensure high-quality teachers for all students, AACTE undertook partnership with the National Academy of Education through this policy research and advocacy project. In addition, in 2022, AACTE produced two studies, Trends in the Alternative Teacher Certification Sector Outside Higher Education (King & Lin, 2022) (in collaboration with the Center for American Progress) and Higher Education-Based Alternative Teacher Preparation Programs (King, 2022b) to provide a comprehensive view of both non-higher education and higher education alternative certification programs. While non-higher education alternative certification programs had more participants, the higher education alternative certification programs more effectively address the educator shortage (King, 2022b).

In the face of dramatic national and worldwide changes (especially, the worldwide movement of people affected by war, climate change, and failed nation-states), fast-paced technological advances, and changes within the professional associations community, will the seven guiding objectives laid out by AACTE’s founders—relating to collaboration, research dissemination, and representation of the profession of teacher education to national constituencies—prevail and meet future needs? The seven guiding objectives are as follows:

To provide member institutions with the means for continuous exchange of information, experiences, and judgments concerning all aspects of teacher education.

To stimulate and facilitate research, experimentation, and evaluation in teacher education and in related problems of learning, and teaching; to serve as a clearinghouse of information and reports on these matters; and to publicize the findings of studies that have significance for the improvement of teacher education.

To exchange reports, experiences, and ideas with educators of teachers in other countries as a means of improving teacher education and of strengthening international understanding and cooperation.

To encourage and assist the administrators of teacher education institutions to develop greater competence, especially in their leadership of college faculties in developing improved programs for the education of teachers.

To cooperate with other professional educational organizations and agencies in activities designed to establish desirable directions, costs, and standards for teacher education.

To make available to colleges and universities, upon request, professional consultant services and other practical assistance to help them improve their teacher education programs.

To represent the education of teachers before all segments of the public as a professional enterprise carrying special responsibilities for the development of competent citizens.

The answer to the question “will the seven guiding objectives laid out by AACTE’s founders—relating to collaboration, research dissemination, and representation of the profession of teacher education to national constituencies—prevail and meet future needs?” follows.

Preparing for the Future

To address the foundational question and others about AACTE’s future, AACTE’s president and CEO commissioned a report in 2019 about AACTE’s new vision statement “to revolutionize education for all learners, established a Futures Task Force (FTF), and completed an environmental scan to assess the increasingly crowded field of educator preparation and to interrogate needed changes to the structure of the teaching profession.” Section II of this article discusses efforts to forward cast AACTE.

In 2021, AACTE published Revolutionizing Education for All Learners: A Road Map to the Future (Fenwick, 2021b). This report grew out of a desire to learn what national leaders knew and felt about AACTE’s new vision statement “to revolutionize education for all learners.” The intention of the Revolutionizing Education report was to provide invaluable perspectives on AACTE new strategic priorities from other engaged, knowledgeable observers—specifically, a select group of thought leaders at influential grant-making and public policy organizations, as well as a cross-section of deans of education at diverse colleges/universities (Gangone etal., 2023). Among these, three interviewees were foundation presidents or board members (Carnegie Foundation of New York, Catalyst, Kellogg Foundation, and Spencer Foundation), five interviewees were leaders of policy organizations (Center for American Progress, Excelencia in Education, NAACP, Washington Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights and Urban Affairs), and five interviewees were deans of education representing, respectively, three large public universities (Kansas State University, Florida International University, and University of Virginia), one large private university (Harvard University), and one private historically Black college or university (HBCU), Clark Atlanta University. Notably, four of these deans were AACTE members, while one was a non-member.

The report’s conclusion is that AACTE is viewed by philanthropic, nonprofit, and higher education leaders as uniquely positioned to advance an equity research and practice agenda in teacher education that results in a more diverse and innovatively prepared generation of teachers. These teachers, in turn, will be better equipped to serve future generations of PK–12 students. The 13 leaders interviewed for this report view AACTE as preeminent research, convening, and policy advocacy organization. In their opinion, AACTE’s future work should build on its current strategic roles and activities by encouraging its members to experiment, create new models, grow innovative programs, and stimulate responsive policy. Primary among the recommendations made by those interviewed is that AACTE continue with an increasing emphasis on DEI, coupled with efforts to eradicate racism and other structures that marginalize PK–12 students.

Affirmed by these findings, in October 2022, AACTE’s president and CEO worked alongside the Board of Directors to establish a FTF, appointed its members, charged the FTF members to consider the following comprehensive framing questions: To revolutionize education, what changes and or additions to AACTE’s priorities and work does the task force recommend? That is, what needs to be done differently or at a better scale by AACTE? What recommendations can be made to the board to support changes in policy, practice, and research?

Over a series of meetings between 2002 and 2023, the FTF membership that undertook the charge included AACTE’s president, board chair, School/College of Education deans, and a university president, provost, and other senior executive leaders, representing diverse institutional types and geographic regions. Spurred by their intention “not to predict the future, but to stretch to see what’s coming around the corner,” the FTF’s deliberations were framed by the following questions:

As the preeminent educator preparation organization becomes 75, what is the future of AACTE?

How do we address major challenges facing educator preparation?

How do we increase member value and thus increase member participation?

How do we support our members in their efforts related to DEI and democratic education (social justice)?

How do we collaborate with other organizations (like ours and different)?

How do we communicate our vision and pathway moving forward?

How do we expand our scope to include other fields of educator preparation?

Five Themes of the FTF

In response to these questions, five interrelated and operations themes are emerging from the FTF’s deliberations including coalitions and connections, DEI, national office support, strengthening support for state affiliates, and workforce needs and priorities. The following is a listing of emerging themes and recommendations.

Coalitions and Connections

AACTE should continue to examine its status and definition as an associative, member-driven organization, and expand and strengthen ties to other organizations (particularly those sharing a similar mission to advance the preparation and equitable placement of fully credentialed teachers and other school personnel), and those explicitly committed to equity, social justice, and human rights. AACTE should work with members and partners to (more rapidly) explore and innovate educator preparation (especially given that current preparation models are becoming outdated). AACTE should organize and facilitate (national) collaborative faculty research projects (across institutional types and geographic regions) related to issues of practice in educator preparation. Such a national collaborative could help accelerate useful change in the field.

DEI

AACTE should continue to model and stress the centrality and urgency of DEI work in higher education, EPPs, and PK–12 schools (for school personnel and students). AACTE’s DEI leadership should be aimed at increasing educator workforce diversity, equitable placement of fully credentialed educators, and the identification, disassembly, and replacement of education practices, policies, and other structures that reproduce education inequities.

National Office Support and Federal Policy Advocacy

AACTE should remain central to federal policy formulation related to educator preparation and other associated education and social policy. The push should be serving as an “upstream” resource and advocate influencing and shaping federal policies and funding as they are being crafted.

Strengthening Support for State Affiliates

AACTE should further refine and facilitate deans, state government liaisons, and state chapters working together to advance state policies that strengthen educator preparation as well as develop mechanisms for state policies to inform federal educator workforce policies.

Workforce Needs and Priorities

AACTE should accelerate its efforts to work with members and partners to reimagine educator preparation content and job structure to meet current and future workforce needs and trends (including but not limited to technological advances such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics). Context drives change and the pace of change is accelerating. Technological advances, human migrations, war and failed nation-states, environmental disasters, climate change, demographic shifts, and geopolitical and economic policies all affect the enterprise of education. Through all of this, education remains the cornerstone of a democratic society. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt observed that “democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education” (Gangone, 2020). It is within this context that AACTE crafts its unwavering purpose for the future of educator preparation.

AACTE’s North Star

In 1948 (the year of AACTE’s establishment), about 54% of U.S. students graduated high school. In 2023, nearly 87% graduate. Over the last 75 years, college degree attainment has also changed dramatically in at least two ways. First, today nearly 38% of Americans have at least a bachelor’s degree. In the 1940s, less than 5% did. In addition, larger shares of African Americans and women of all races/ethnicity are graduating high school and college. In fact, women now represent much of the college-educated workforce in the United States. And, for the first time in the nation’s history, the majority of public college/university students are students of color. However, enrollments in education do not reflect the optimism in higher education generally. Interest in education as a major has declined precipitously, as documented by AACTE’s National Portrait of Colleges of Education and other sources (King, 2022a). Using the NCES data, during the 1970–1971, school year education was the most popular (italics added) field for U.S. undergraduates. Colleges and universities issued 176,307 bachelor’s degrees in education that year, or 21% of all degrees earned (Pew Research Center, 2022). Since then, the downward trend has been consistent. Between 2008–2009 and the 2018–2019 academic years, the number of people completing a teacher education program declined by almost a third. Traditional teacher preparation programs saw the largest decline—35%—but alternative programs experienced drops, too (Will, 2022).

While AACTE remains committed to accelerating education outcomes tied to making the United States a leader among nations in the quality and delivery of PK–12 schooling and higher education designed to uphold democratic values, advance a pluralistic and inclusive society, and well serve the world’s most diverse PK–12 and higher education student bodies, it is not an easy road ahead.

After 75 years of existence, AACTE members include U.S.-based 4-year colleges and universities, community colleges, and international colleges and universities, state affiliates throughout the country with Advisory Council of State Representatives (ACSRs) advising AACTE’s board on state issues and facilitating collaboration among state organizations and between those groups and AACTE; has published more than 150 policy reports, monographs, issues briefs, and thought leadership articles; supported 24 pieces of federal legislation to strengthen the educator workforce and advance educational equity; led and participated in more than 80 national convenings including one at the White House and several U.S. Senate briefings; and has become a trusted source for national media journalists reporting on education and the PK–12 teaching force. Media citations of AACTE’s research, policy advocacy, and members’ practice work have accelerated and been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes, Education Week, Inside Higher Education, The Hechinger Report, U.S. News and World Report, Associated Press, and on PBS News Hour, Fox News, and CBS, among others.

With a churning world and national context and mindful of continued growth, AACTE will lead the way for the next generation of educators who comprise the educator workforce. AACTE’s North Star remains squarely in educator preparation, grounded in its historic work in teacher education, with the understanding that the Association’s work is critical to building an educator workforce to function within new and innovative educational structures and networks. AACTE acknowledges that pre-K–12 education, for which our members prepare our students, is the core of all professions in our society and especially critical to sustaining our nation’s democracy. AACTE does this work with our members, our educational networks, and with colleagues to elevate and expand the educator preparation field and those institutions, colleges, and programs that prepare educators. AACTE facilitates the growth and development of the educator workforce primarily through its service to its higher education/college of education members and in coalition with its national/international partners, grounded in the belief that a comprehensively prepared educator is best equipped to meet the needs of the 21st-century student. AACTE identifies and disseminates policy guidance, innovative practices, professional development, and research that support the work of our members, specifically, and the field of educator preparation writ large.

Conclusion

This editorial, in recognition of JTE’s 75th anniversary as the esteemed publication of AACTE, calls attention to immigration, threats to democracy, aftershocks of Brown, COVID-19 recovery, censorship, and teacher shortages as prevailing winds that continue to significantly influence educator preparation. AACTE’s recent research publications, policy advocacy, and practice work remain steadfast in responding to these forces. Our measures of success will be in what AACTE does to facilitate the examination, study, practice, and implementation of research, advocacy at the state and federal levels, and professional development to continuously improve and promote innovation in the educator preparation field and in those institutions, colleges, and programs that prepare educators. In addition, this new and reinvigorated approach will fuel new memberships in AACTE and investment by foundations and others seeking transformational systems change in education.

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