61.017 - Navigating the Terrain of Teacher and Principal Education Reform: A Conversation With Chicago-Area Deans

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

This session will consist of a panel presentation and discussion led by several deans of public and private colleges of education with campuses in the city of Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. These deans are members of CCADE, the Council of Chicago Area Deans of Education. To highlight the Chicago context, we propose to hold the session at Roosevelt University’s College of Education, located at 18 South Michigan Ave. The room for the event has a dramatic view of Millennium Park. Roosevelt University would be happy to host a reception following the session.

Over the last several years, CCADE has been actively involved in responding to significant and often disruptive changes in the system of teacher and principal education in the city of Chicago and throughout the state of Illinois: more rigorous admission requirements for entry to teacher and principal education programs; increased scrutiny and reporting requirements from the State of Illinois (as well as accrediting agencies and non-profit organizations such as NCTQ); the implementation of a new high stakes exit assessment, edTPA; and efforts by the Chicago Public Schools to re-organize and improve its talent pool of employment prospects. The session participants will describe the leadership challenges and organizational impacts of these developments, as well as the lessons learned from their efforts to influence and improve state and local policy and decision-making. Other participants in the session will be invited to share their own efforts in this regard, and to explore how deans of education colleges across the country might work together and with more sophistication and critical skill to promote educational policies that foster social justice and the democratizing possibilities of education.

Strong leadership is a necessary component of any movement toward social justice. This session will provide researchers and current and future leaders of education colleges with insight into the diverse array of leadership skills and perspectives that have shaped significant institutional and organizational change in Chicago and are laying the foundation for improvements in student learning in the future.

Sub Unit

• AERA Sessions

Chair

• Thomas R. Philion, Roosevelt University

Participants

• Victoria Chou, Dominican University, River Forest, IL

• Therese D. Pigott, Loyola University Chicago

• Rebecca Nelson, North Park University

• Paul N. Zionts, DePaul University

• Maureen D. Gillette, Northeastern Illinois University

Discussant

• Peggy Mueller, WestEd