Lurie College Accepts the Christa McAuliffe Excellence Award in Teacher Education
SJSU Lurie College Dean Heather Lattimer (left) and SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson onstage at the AACSU summer meeting. Photo courtesy of Sara Hertwig Photography for AASCU.
This July, San José State University’s Connie L. Lurie College of Education was awarded the Christa McAuliffe Excellence in Teacher Education Award from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), an organization of state-supported colleges and universities that offer degree programs leading to bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degrees.
SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Vincent Del Casino, Jr. and Lurie College Dean Heather Lattimer were in attendance. The award was given in recognition of SJSU’s commitment to diversifying the teacher workforce.
“San José State is bridging the persistent diversity discrepancy between students in P-12 education and those who educate them,” Teniente-Matson stated at the conference. “SJSU’s Connie L. Lurie College of Education is leading the way in program implementation aimed at increasing the diversity pipeline within the education workforce. As an anchor institution of Silicon Valley, we embrace pedagogy that ensures our graduates are role models as transformative educators, counselors, therapists, school and community leaders.”
Lattimer accepted the award at the Summer Meeting for Academic and Student Affairs Leaders in Denver, Colorado. She shared what this recognition means for SJSU.
What does this award represent?
Heather Lattimer (HL): This award is a fantastic recognition of the tremendous work of our students, faculty, staff, alumni and community partners to grow and diversify our educator preparation programs. Over the past six years we’ve grown our outreach, increased scholarship support, strengthened student success supports, built new partnerships with P-12 school districts and community-based organizations, and launched specially designed initiatives such as our Ethnic Studies Residency Program, Bilingüisimo y Justicia bilingual education program and our Male Educators of Color Initiative. This work has led to significant growth in our program overall, with the highest rates of growth coming from students who identify as first generation and/or students of color. We’ve seen a 27% increase in Asian student enrollment; a 63% increase in Latinx/Hispanic student enrollment; a 293% increase in bilingual authorization enrollment, a 195% increase in Asian completers; a 357% increase in Latinx/Hispanic completers; and a 300% increase in Black/African American completers.
The Christa McAuliffe Award celebrates the power and impact of this work and recognizes SJSU and the Lurie College of Education as a national leader.
What did it feel like to accept this award?
Cynthia Teniente-Matson, Heather Lattimer and Vincent Del Casino, Jr., at the 2024 AACSU summer meeting. Photo courtesy of Sara Hertwig Photography for AASCU.
HL: It was an honor to be in Denver at the AASCU Summer Meeting to accept the award on behalf of the Lurie College of Education and SJSU. It is particularly noteworthy that this is one of only four Excellence and Innovation Awards that AASCU presented at the 2024 Summer Meeting. The prominence of the award speaks to the critical role that teacher education plays in the work of our state colleges and universities nationally in leading P-20 [preschool through higher education] educational ecosystems and advancing educational equity and economic opportunity.
What does it mean to diversify the teacher pipeline? Why is it important?
HL: All children deserve to have teachers who understand their lived experiences, recognize their strengths, celebrate their successes and share their joys. There is a substantial body of research that consistently shows that our P-12 students and communities thrive when the diversity of our educators reflect the diversity of our communities.
What else should members of the SJSU community know about this recognition?
HL: Our students are amazing! Choosing to be an educator — especially at a time when we see increasing politicization of our classrooms and are experiencing the weight of decades of underfunding of our schools — is a bold and courageous commitment. They deserve our full support while they are here with us at SJSU and we must continue to support and advocate for our graduates when they are in their P-12 classrooms.
To fully realize the successes recognized by this award, we need to have systems, structures, and funding support in place to retain our P-12 teachers, providing them with the salary and resources needed so that they can confidently commit to a career in education and invest their time and talents in their students and families.
