Resolution 2013-1: Call for More Effective Response to Violence

The Resolutions Committee, at the request of PACTE to address the statement of the 180+ organizations that have endorsed the Statement on Effective Violence Prevention proposes the following resolution:

Whereas, many of our national organizations, along with our whole nation, offer condolences to the families of the lost and wounded of Sandy Hook Elementary, and have endorsed the statement on Effective Violence Prevention;

Be it resolved that the President and Board of Directors of ATE join the 180+ organizations that have endorsed the Statement on Effective Violence Prevention.

 

Resolution 2013-2, Call for Input to Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) Draft Standards

Whereas, the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) has released draft standards;

Whereas, CAEP is soliciting public comment until March 29th;

Whereas, ATE is invested in quality teacher preparation and the future of accreditation;

Be it resolved, ATE encourages and supports members to offer comments during the public comment period for the CAEP draft standards;

And be it also resolved that the Executive Director immediately solicit input from the membership on the draft standards.

 

Resolution 2013-3, Universal Preschool Education

Preschool education has been shown to be a significant contributor to the subsequent success of children both in school and in life. While there is nearly universal agreement of this connection, and substantial research evidence that 90% of a child’s intellectual capacity is developed prior to age five, a large percentage of young children are not afforded the opportunity to derive these benefits, due to a lack of funding and access. On the other hand, the retention of children in primary and secondary grades costs over 14 billion annually, has been shown to have extremely negative effects on those children who are retained, and correlates with a 40 to 50% increase in the likelihood that these retained students will drop out, over those who were never retained. 

Whereas we believe providing preschool education for all children who fall into the appropriate age group, is essential for their futures;

And whereas the Association of Teacher Educators is a collective voice to promote best practices in American education;

And whereas we believe this to be an opportune time to lend support to the need for universal preschool education as well as for the preparation of effective early childhood educators;

Now therefore be it resolved that ATE support universal preschool education in the following ways:

•Support the institution of alternate education paths proven successful for those children in lieu of current retention policies.

•Support the use of the 14 plus billion annually spent on retention, to the expansion of high quality preschool programs.

•Increase publications on the nature of and vital importance of preschool education.

•Disseminate knowledge that would support universal preschool education and advocate the elimination of retention on a national level.

•Pursue opportunities for joint ventures between ATE and other organizations in the field of early childhood education.

 Be it further resolved that the Board of Directors take appropriate action to achieve these goals and report these actions directly to the Resolutions Committee.

 

Resolution 2013-4, Proliferation of Value Added Modeling (VAM) In Teacher Evaluation

 Value added modeling (VAM) is a type of statistical analysis that measures students’ achievement progress by comparing their most recent standardized test scores to their results from earlier tests.  Recently initiated policies in several states employ VAM data as a means of identifying individual teachers’ effectiveness.  In some states, VAM data accounts for as much as fifty percent of teachers’ performance evaluations (Baker et al., 2010). Administrators use data gathered using VAM to make personnel decisions including offering pay incentives to teachers, offering or denying tenure, and teacher dismissal based on their students’ performance. The prevalence of policies that employ VAM as a measure of teacher effectiveness has direct implications for teacher education in the United States.

Whereas we are influenced by the evidence that indicates that many current uses of VAM are either statistically invalid, unreliable, or both (Baker et al., 2010);

Whereas we are concerned by the proliferation of VAM in new forums, such as evaluation of pre-service teachers and teacher education programs;  

Whereas we believe both pre- and in-service teachers should be evaluated using a range of measures and should avoid over-emphasizing any one evaluation technique (Baker et al., 2010);

Whereas we believe that VAM-based teacher evaluation policies will drive away capable people from pursuing careers in education (Baker et al., 2010) ;

Whereas we believe that VAM-based teacher evaluation policies could cause effective educators currently working in schools to avoid teaching at-risk students (Baker et al., 2010);

Whereas we believe that VAM-based policies may negatively affect the quality of clinical and field experiences of pre-service teachers;  

Action Statement

Be it therefore resolved that 

•ATE supports ongoing external, scholarly, impartial, and non-partisan research into the validity and reliability of the VAM-based teacher evaluation systems currently being used in the United States.

•ATE encourages its members to present the evidence indicating the inaccuracies and ambiguities inherent in VAM-based teacher evaluation systems, where they exist, and alternate models of effective teacher evaluation systems with state and national policy makers.

•ATE will include a conference strand and this issue.

•The ATE Board of Directors will take appropriate action, including collecting data on the effects of VAM on the clinical experiences of teacher education programs, to respond to the components of this resolution.  

Baker, E. L., Barton, P. E., Darling-Hammond, L., Haertel, E., Ladd, H. F., Linn, R. L., … & Shepard, L. A. (2010). Problems with the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.

 

Resolution 2013-5: Publication of Yearly Resolutions of the Association of Teacher Educators

Whereas the Association of Teacher Educators adopts resolutions each year through the Delegate Assembly; 

And whereas these resolutions can be seen to be the current thinking and/or positions of the Association;

And whereas it is vital for the Association to widely distribute these resolutions so that the educational community at large knows the positions of the Association; 

Action Statement:

Be it therefore resolved that the editors of Action in Teacher Education be directed to publish, on an annual basis, the resolutions adopted by the Association in the previous year, and the actions taken in response to those resolutions.