Nuts & Bolts Webinar – Ensuring Success: Providing Equitable Opportunities for All Teacher Candidates
A high-quality educator preparation program requires educator preparation providers (EPP) to establish equitable experiences for all teacher candidates. This is predicated on the understanding that students are not one-size-fits all. Equitable experiences begin with an ethic of care and are ingrained in recruitment and selection processes, advising, timely progression and completion of the program, and induction support based on candidate-specific needs. Learn how one EPP, exemplifies this principle in all facets of their program.
Speaker
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Dr. James O’MearaDean of the College of Education, Professor of Curriculum and Instruction Texas A&M InternationalProfessor Dr. James O’Meara is an internationally recognized expert in Teacher Education. O’Meara served as a two term (2012-2022) President of the International Council on Education for Teaching (ICET) and continues to serve as US focal point for the International Teacher Taskforce on Teachers for 2030 (TTF). In 2021 he served as a co-lead of the TTF Inclusion and Equity in Teacher Policies and Practices Thematic Group. He is a full professor of Curriculum and Instruction and the Dean of the College of Education. He serves as project lead for the Charles Butt Foundation Raising Texas Teacher Initiative, the Branch Alliance for Educator Diversity National Teacher Preparation Transformation Center at TAMIU, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Educator Preparation Micro Credential Planning Grant, and the Texas Lead for the Consortium for Research-Based and Equitable Assessment Project. O’Meara leads TAMIU’s work in the development of an Educator Preparation Dashboard for informing local program enhancement and candidate support efforts. He is also a consultant for the Texas Education Agency’s Effective Preparation Framework (EPF) and a Subject Matter Expert for the Texas Education and Training (E&T) course sequence curriculum project. O’Meara’s current research focuses on Teacher Recruitment Systems to Narrow Equity Gaps, and it has drawn interest from the funding bodies including the Carnegie Foundation. He recently submitted NSF Noyce grant incudes a request for funding the use of Mixed Reality Simulations with secondary mathematics teacher candidates.
