IACTE

 Last Thursday and Friday I attended the IACTE (Iowa Association of Colleges for Teacher Education).  This was a new place for me to be but I was excited to walk into a room where although the context was new, I found two people I knew and even recognized a few familiar faces.  The people I already knew and were able to connect with were:  Cheryl (Budlong) O'Brien, one of my education professors and early mentors from Wartburg College, and Barb Ehlers, a good friend and ICEC Co-Chair now teaching at Upper Iowa University.  The familiar faces were from UNI and UIU but also a couple from my time at IMSEP in August and one from GWAEA/U of Iowa.

Friday morning's session was presented by Circe Stumbo (West Wind Education Policy, Inc) and Nadene Davidson.  They presented the Model Core Teaching Standards form InTASK (Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium).  I liked Nadene's comment that, this isn't just about tinkering or tweaking but rather a major systems change!  This has been a continual theme I have heard in education over the last two years and I am glad I had the opportunity to talk about second order change in Advanced Contemporary School Leadership last year at GWAEA (Thanks, Susan Leddick).

I sat at a table with the staff of three from Faith Baptist Bible College and a UNI colleage, Dianna Briggs.  She said something that really resonated with me and that I want to keep with me and share with  others.  We need to move beyond the sage on the stage and guide on the side to "Mentor in the Center".  Wow!

Perhaps most stimulating were the comments about public policy related to teacher standards.  In the national arena there is movement toward measuring "Teacher Effectiveness" (what the teacher can do) and beyond the traditional from NCLB, "Teacher Quality" (what the teacher knows).  So how do we measure teacher effectiveness?  Policy folks are tempted to take the student test scores (which are known to be valid & reliable) and connect these to teachers and then to take the teachers and make the connection to their teacher prep programs.  Or another option is the value-added models but the psychometrics aren't strong enough to differentiate the "middle" 80% of folks.  Currently Iowa is involved with the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium to determine achievement on Common Core . . . perhaps through authentic measures.

The afternoon I attended the session on Iowa Core and what is happening with Assessment for Learning.  Kris Kilibarda (Central College) hosted the session and invited Julie Hukee (AEA 11) and Sue Uppdegraff (AEA 1).  I was amazed to learn how few in IHE knew about the Characteristics of Effective Instruction.  The moodle site was introduced and there was emphatic emphasis on the urgency of getting the teacher prep programs and the AEA Iowa Core teams on the same page and in the same conversation.

This made me feel like I had a place and role to play . . . I sent off an email to my GWAEA friends and we have engaged in the conversation and will continue to do so~