Monday, 1:45 pm-2:30 pm

SESSION:  3A

Room:  Veramendi Salon A

Type of Session:  Single-Topic Session

 

The Brazos Valley Teach Program: Developing an Education and Training, Grow-Your-Own Career Pathway alongside Texas High School Partners

Christine Garcia, Texas A&M University

Valerie Hill-Jackson, Texas A&M University

Amy Jurica, Texas A&M University

Janice Meyer, Texas A&M University 

 

If the teacher workforce is facing a vacancy crisis (Partelow, 2019), why aren’t there more concerted efforts to find long-term solutions in the ‘Education and Training’ cluster in state-funded Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs in Texas High Schools? In a 45-minute audience-engaged presentation, attendees will (1) review education and training courses as a teacher career pathway, (2) examine Brazos Valley Teach’s 8-component grow-your-own high school academy model for developing an education and training career pathway, (3) understand why developing long-term teacher recruitment strategies alongside high school partners matter.

SESSION:  3B

Room:  Veramendi Salon B

Type of Session:  Single-Topic Session

 

A Seat at the Table: Engaging Community College Partners

Jeffrey Herr, Tarrant County College

Shereah Taylor-Love, Tarrant County College

                                                                     

This session highlights the efforts of Tarrant County College (TCC) in engaging K-12, university, and industry partners, to create a variety of pipelines and pathways for educator training. During this session, we will share the experience of TCC’s Teacher Education Program as we worked to create intentional partnerships, as well as focused on the various students’ needs when selecting an Educator Preparation Program for degree completion and certification.

SESSION:  3C

Room:  Veramendi Salon C

Type of Session:  Single-Topic Session

 

Alignment of the Revised CAEP Standards to Address Preparation Gaps and Improve P-12 Outcomes

Dustin Hebert, Sam Houston State University

Malina Monaco, CAEP

                                                                     

This presentation, aligned to the policy/leadership strand, will include a detailed discussion of key revisions to the CAEP standards and how a stakeholder-focused model guided the process. In addition, the planning and action steps needed to leverage the CAEP accreditation process by EPPs to address preparation gaps and improve P-12 instruction and outcomes will be addressed. EPP members will co-present their experiences and provide examples.

SESSION:  3D

Room:  Veramendi Salon D

Type of Session:  Single-Topic Session

 

ASEP Reporting - What One University-Based EPP did to Improve the Process

Thom Edwards, Baylor University

Sandra Parnell, Baylor University

                                                                     

Baylor University moved from paper-based to electronic data gathering for certification candidates five years ago with the implementation of Watermark Tk20. Tk20 is a web-based program that allows us to design our forms and decide what we would like housed in this system. We started small and have now moved to have almost all paperwork for EPP candidates housed in this system. Everything from time logs to recommendations by the field supervisor and cooperating teacher is housed in this system.

SESSION:  3E

Room:  Veramendi Salon G

Type of Session:  Single-Topic Session

 

Avoiding Complacent Compliance: How an Educator Preparation Program Leadership Team Leveraged High-Yield Strategies and Moved the Accountability Needle from Probationary Status to Re-Accreditation in Less than a Year

Crystal Gardner, Houston Community College

                                                                     

This session will discuss how an Educator Preparation Program’s leadership worked with their institutional Workforce, Accreditation, and Licensure team to redevelop programming and move towards re-accreditation in less than a year. How does such a transition take place during the COVID-19 pandemic with an all-new leadership team in place?

 Join the discussion as we chronicle the turnaround and transition of a newly staffed EPP facing non-reaccreditation. This session will break down the pitfalls, action steps, and preventative measures taken to move from probationary status, in addition to providing strategies and ideas to avoid a less than desirable audit.

SESSION:  3F

Room:  Veramendi Salon H

Type of Session:  Multi-Topic Session

 

Beyond the Novice Teacher: Exploring the Complexities of Re-entering, Stop-out, Promotion, Reassignment, and Retirement related to Teacher Vacancies

Jeremy Landa, Texas Education Agency

Toni Templeton, University of Houston Educational Research Center

                                                                     

Amid considerations of teacher vacancies, discussions of teacher pathways have been limited to considering the placement of new teachers from Educator Preparation Programs and the attrition of teachers into other fields. However, concurrent research conducted independently by the Texas Education Agency and the University of Houston ERC has identified emerging trends in teacher placement and attrition that suggest the necessary expansion of pathway discussion to include classroom teachers returning to teach (i.e., re-entering after stop-out and reassignment from another position) and additional factors that contribute to the attrition of classroom teachers (i.e., promotion, reassignment, and retirement).

 

 

Making the Case for Pre-Service Teachers to Learn how to Conduct Functional Behavior Assessments to Address Challenging Behavior in the Classroom

Andria Young, University of Houston-Victoria

 

Teachers who completed a course covering functional behavior assessment (FBA) were surveyed to determine how they used their knowledge of functions of behavior, functional behavior assessments, and function-based intervention in their classroom after completing the class. Half the teachers queried used formal FBA procedures to contribute to an IEP and classroom management, and nearly all the teachers used their knowledge of FBA to informally observe behavior to determine the function of the challenging behavior prior to intervening. Implications for pre-service teacher education and in-service training are discussed.

SESSION:  3G

Room:  Spring Lake Salon C

Type of Session:  Roundtable Session

 

Laying out the Virtual Welcome MAT: Program Redesign of a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) to Focus on Virtual Teaching and Learning

Betty Coneway, West Texas A&M University

Crystal Hughes, West Texas A&M University

Russell Miller, West Texas A&M University

 

An existing Master of Arts in Teaching program at a regional university is undergoing a redesign. This redesign focuses on changing the existing curriculum from a traditional elective-based idea to a more intense and narrow focus for virtual teaching and learning.

 

 

Sharing the Stories: The Real-Life Stories That Will Uplift our Teachers and Our Profession Once Again

Neva Cramer, Schreiner University

CANCELED

 

Meaning work and purposeful lives in a changing global society .... this is the goal we strive for as faculty and strive to help our students to attain through their preparation to become professional educators. However, we are not sharing the stories and recognizing this most valued of all teacher qualities. Perhaps the teacher shortage would be less dire if we once again uplifted and supported our teachers through authentic and holistic stories of success, not just test scores and data.

 

 

Strengthening a University-Based Alternative Teacher Certification Program: Problems and Solutions

Amy Barnhill, University of Houston-Victoria

Mary Lasater, Univerity of Houston-Victoria

Liping Wei, University of Houston-Victoria

 

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The Value of Building Collaboration with Deans and Directors of Educator Preparation Programs (EPPs) Across Colleges and Universities in Texas; the Ebb and Flow of Mentoring Roles

Amber Daub, East Texas Baptist University

Sarah Hartman, Wayland Baptist University

Gae Lyn McInroe, McMurry University

 

One of the varied roles of a college/university Education Dean is to serve as a mentor for teacher candidates, faculty, staff, community partners, etc. The mentoring role can take on many forms and have multiple layers depending on years of service, program dynamics, data, financial needs, etc. This roundtable discussion will focus on how mentoring relationships between deans/directors begin, develop, and flourish across EPPs in Texas. Through this dialogue, participants will also understand the importance of the mentoring relationship related to Academic Program Reviews, educational curriculum pilots, grant writing and implementation, etc. Whether you are an experienced or new Dean/Director of an EPP in Texas, your presence and participation are welcome as we seek further guidance on capacity building in the successful leadership of our Texas EPPs!

MOVED TO 6G (Tuesday 8:00-8:45 am)

 

 

Building a Culture of Support from Orientation to Implementation

Helen Berg, Sam Houston State University

Robin Johnson, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

Sarah Schmaltz Saltmarsh, Texas Tech University

Lynda Scott, Texas Tech University

Sharon Vasser Darling, University of Texas Permian Basin

 

Teacher induction has long been a focus for school districts across the country. The notion that, due to the complexity of the profession and the lack of clinically based preparation programs, new teachers are entering classrooms without the necessary knowledge and skills to be successful. There is also the belief that a large portion of these skills is better acquired “on the job.” In this presentation, three university-based educator preparation programs and their local school districts share how they utilized the research on induction and ongoing support to ensure every novice teacher entering their community classrooms was effectively prepared.

SESSION:  3H

Room:  Veramendi Salon I

Type of Session:  Single-Topic Session

 

Making the Most of the Performance Assessment for School Leaders

Lori Einfalt, Concordia University

Mary Kimmins, Concordia University

                                                                     

How can EPP programs make the most of the PASL Tasks to develop capacity and strengthen leadership abilities in aspiring campus leaders? Concordia University instructors will share their PASL Preparation Guide written from the experience of working with principal preparation candidates to do just that—make the most of the PASL! This new resource focuses on guiding candidates in the early conceptual phase of planning substantive PASL projects. Identifying tasks that will be meaningful and make a difference while promoting skill building is the focus of the PASL Preparation Guide, and successful completion of the performance tasks is the goal!

SESSION:  3I

Room:  Veramendi Salon J

Type of Session:  Single-Topic Session

 

Mapping Improvement at the Speed of GPS

Eunji Cho, Texas A&M University-Texarkana

Sara Lawrence, Texas A&M University-Texarkana

                                                                     

Like those of us nostalgic for maps from long-ago road trips, many EPPs continue to rely on lagging indicators including test scores and enrollment data that provide little direction toward aims for improvement. However, improvement science offers the ease and speed of practical measures and leading indicators to streamline processes and collect relevant data for growth. While a work in progress, participants will learn processes, challenges, and successes in leading an EPP to, metaphorically, ditch our outdated maps for GPS technology using improvement science for continuous improvement.

SESSION:  3J

Room:  Chautauqua Salon A

Type of Session:  Multi-Topic Presentations

 

Matters of the Heart - Supporting from the Office to the Classroom

Stephanie Atchley, Tarleton State University

Sharonda Pruitt, Texas A&M University-Commerce

Sharon Ross, Texas A&M University-Commerce

                                                                     

Our job as leaders is to inspire hope through challenging times and to let people know that we will not just survive but can and will survive (Jill Siler, 2020). As faculty, we inspire that hope in classroom teachers from the practitioner's work of the aspiring superintendents and principals. Practical applications from lessons shared will be highlighted in this session as supporting factors to uplift educators. Participants will leave with ideas to implement immediately in their programs.

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SESSION:  3K

Room:  Chautauqua Salon B

Type of Session:  Single-Topic Session

 

Preparing Teacher Candidates to Support Students with Disabilities with Postsecondary Transition

Leena Landmark, Sam Houston State University

 

Federal and state laws mandate transition planning for students with disabilities. This presentation provides an example of how to prepare educators for transition planning with students with disabilities. Through contextualized teaching and learning, teacher candidates apply their academic understanding and abilities within a field-based setting that includes students with disabilities, their families, and their teachers. Additionally, teacher candidates learn how to adapt skills in real-life settings, with the support of their instructors within the educator preparation program. Finally, the components of transition planning described in this presentation align with evidence-based practices.

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SESSION:  3L

Room:  Spring Lake Salon A

Type of Session:  Single-Topic Session

 

Pre-Service Teachers' and School Students’ Perception of Developing Educational Apps for Teaching and Learning

Marissa Holbrook, Sam Houston State University

Andrey Koptelov, Sam Houston State University

Lada Koptelova, Carl Wunsche Sr. High School

                                                                     

Nearly everyone prefers to use their smartphone daily. Why not use a student’s interest in smartphones to create applications to service their educational needs? We provide an opportunity for pre-service teachers to learn concepts of developing educational applications for smartphones without advanced knowledge of coding. Teachers can create apps focused on the most challenging course objectives. Students can also create an application with the guidance and support of their teacher that allows the student to study through this process instead of constantly using worksheets. We collected data and learned about pre-service teachers' and high school students’ perceptions of this approach.

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SESSION:  3M

Room:  Spring Lake Salon B

Session Pending

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Is This Censorship? A Critical Discourse Analysis of H.B. 3979 and S.B. 3

Amber Goodwin, Sam Houston State University

Abbie Strunc, Sam Houston State University

                                                                     

The 87th Session of the Texas Legislature heavily featured educational policies. Much of this work focused on the idea of COVID-19 learning loss and the ways in which schools could or should account for and make up for the learning losses experienced during a global pandemic. At the same time, the Texas legislature, in both the House and the Senate, took up issues of critical race theory and how best to prevent this concept from being taught in K-12 public schools across Texas. Texas House Bill 3979 and Senate Bill 3 were both deemed “critical race theory” bills in the media while neither bill explicitly refers to critical race theory, both outline criteria for teachers and administrators in Texas as to how social studies curricula can be taught. This roundtable session invites attendees to consider and discuss the far-reaching implications of this legislation for Texas and other states across the U.S.: is this censorship?

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