Ball State Announces its SIXTH Annual
Summer Institute on Community-Engaged Teacher Preparation
It is with great disappointment that we write to announce that the present circumstances have led to our decision to cancel our 6th Annual Summer Institute on Community-Engaged Teacher Preparation, which was to have taken place on May 20-22, 2020. With travel bans at a majority of universities throughout the country, and with the greatest concern for the personal safety of presenters and participants, it did not seem viable to move forward.
If you have already registered for the conference, rest assured that your payment will be 100% refunded. If you have made hotel arrangements at the Ball State Student Center, simply call to cancel and there will be no charges incurred.
Your work inspires us, and we were so looking forward to what has become an annual gathering where we can further the momentum in the field to consider community-engaged teacher preparation as a compelling and justifiable direction for the field. We shall continue to admire you, at a distance, and look so forward to the next time we can all be together.
Click here to register for the Summer Institute
Join us and our community partners May 20th-22nd, 2020 as we share a model that is showing great promise in the preparation of culturally responsive, socially-just, and equity-focused future teachers. This research-based model exemplifies CAEP standards as it offers candidates the depth and breadth they need to demonstrate their developing effectiveness as teachers. Institute participants will learn the essential components of the model, visit and dialogue with community partners, and explore ways in which teacher preparation programs can more effectively prepare candidates for an increasingly diverse society. Workshop sessions will present the opportunity to adapt this model to other neighborhoods and communities.
The three-day Institute registration fee is $320.00 (excludes lodging and any meals not provided).
Tentative Program
Day 1
Keynote: Wilisha Scaife
Essential Components
Exploring Multiple Configurations
Day 2
Keynote: Bettina Love
Culturally Responsive Teacher Preparation
Community Mentors and Critical Service Learning
Candidates and Conceptual Change
Community Tour & Dinner
Day 3
Personalizing the Model
Lodging is available at the Ball State University Student Center Hotel, conveniently located at the same location as the Institute. To reserve a room, call 765-285-1555 or visit
http://cms.bsu.edu/about/administrativeoffices/studentcenter/hotel. Guests can use the code 2005SUM or mention the Summer Institute to reserve blocked rooms and receive a 15% discount by April 27, 2020.
Click here to register for the Summer Institute
Award for Excellence in Community-Engaged Teacher Preparation
In May of 2015, Ball State University hosted its first ever Summer Institute on Community-Engaged Teacher Preparation. It was an intimate gathering of faculty from five or six institutions of higher education with their school and community partners who came to explore innovation in teacher preparation. Widener University brought one of those teams. The following fall, Nadine McHenry, Professor of Education at Widener returned to Ball State, determined to glean as much information as she could. For three days, she met with faculty, mentor teachers, candidates, and community mentors, exploring every possible component of this work. In the Summer of 2016, Widener returned to our 2nd Summer Institute to share their plan.
In the fall of 2017, a team from Ball State had the distinct honor of visiting Widener University and seeing first-hand how they had operationalized the theoretical constructs of community-engaged teacher preparation. We visited Stetser Elementary School, were introduced to candidates and community mentors, and were honored to visit Asbury A.M.E. church and meet the pastor whom faculty had befriended in their outreach to the community. The passion connected to their efforts was palpable, and their dedication in the tireless work of building a new program from the ground up was inspiring.
Widener has had a presence at EVERY Summer Institute on Community-Engaged Teacher Preparation at Ball State, learning, planning, and eventually presenting on the success of their model of Community-Engaged Teacher Education. At the 2019 Summer Institute, The Alliance for Community-Engaged Teacher Preparation was pleased to present our inaugural Award for Excellence in Community-Engaged Teacher Preparation to our friends and colleagues at Widener University. We applaud their persistence and perseverance in ensuring the development of teachers who possess not only the skill, but the collective will to make educational equity a reality for all children.
Schools within the Context of Community
wins Four National Awards in 2018!
Dr. Eva Zygmunt Named Recipient of the
2018 Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award
APLU Names Ball State University
2018 C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Scholarship
Award Winner
The Engagement Scholarship Consortium has selected the
Schools within the Context of Community program for
the Excellence in Faculty Community Engagement Award
Other Awards
The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) has selected the “Schools within the Context of Community” (SCC) program at Ball State University to receive the 2016 Christa McAuliffe Excellence in Teacher Education Award. The award will be recognized at the AACTE Annual Meeting in March 2017. Launched in 2009 as a partnership between Ball State University’s Department of Elementary Education and the Whitely neighborhood of Muncie, the SCC program takes a unique approach to teacher education. It immerses preservice teacher candidates in a low-income, African-American community where they are carefully matched with community mentors who serve as cultural ambassadors and impart the strengths and values of the community. Alongside these mentors, candidates authentically participate in the life of the community through their attendance at church, community events, and family gatherings and through their joint participation in mobilization with the local community council. Simultaneously, candidates participate in 18 credit hours of integrated coursework with interdisciplinary faculty who work together to plan and deliver a responsive plan of study that is directly relevant to candidates’ experiences. Ushered by a program faculty through intentional exercises of reflection, candidates are challenged to incorporate their learning into their teaching in order to develop culturally responsive experiences for the children with whom they work.
SCC is a young program that has already shown itself to be a positive impact on elementary students, in their neighborhood, and the community. During the program’s 7-year tenure in the Whitely neighborhood, the elementary school with which Ball State works has transitioned from an “F” school to an “A” school, and scores on the state standardized test have increased from 30% to 71%. In turn, the elementary teachers who participate in this program are better prepared to be effective in the classroom and to be of greater service to their students and communities. Notably, 70% of SCC program graduates are currently teaching in racially, ethnically, economically, and linguistically diverse communities. And the university’s relationship with the community is strengthened and authentic. To learn more about SCC, please visit this website. Other recognitions include a second-place award in 2012 for the AACTE-Southern Poverty Law Center Award for Exemplary Culturally Responsive Teacher Preparation.