ABCTE

On Friday, August 27, Jeremiah Young of Beaufort High School in Beaufort, South Carolina, was presented with the inaugural National ABCTE Teacher of the Year award at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. with keynote remarks by Dr. Carl Harris, Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The following letter was sent to Governor Edward Rendell of Pennsylvania today from Giovanni Cozzarelli, ABCTE's CFO & Acting CEO. The letter is in response statements made by the Governor during yesterday's Race to the Top news conference, about Pennsylvania lacking an alternative teaching certification procedure and that a career changer would be required to attend a teacher post graduate program for two years in order to teach in Pennsylvania public schools.

August 25, 2010

Governor Rendell:

Tonight we kick off several weeks of events in South Carolina for our Teach & Inspire Scholarship Program. Funded by a U.S. Department of Education Transition to Teaching grant, the program provides accepted participants with a full scholarship and materials needed to become certified teachers through the ABCTE program. Once ABCTE teaching certification is obtained, candidates are eligible for an additional $1,000 stipend for completing classroom observations.

ABCTE has built two new study resources for the ABCTE Professional Teaching Knowledge (PTK) exam.

The first is a PTK Standards Workbook, which contains 100 pages of content designed to maximize your studying for the ABCTE PTK exam.

The second is the PTK Supplementary Quiz Bank. This targets the topics in the PTK standards that people have missed the most on the actual exam.

In August, we're holding free sample classes covering test preparation in Missouri and Idaho to help current candidates prepare for their ABCTE exams. The sessions are also open to those considering enrolling in the ABCTE program who wish to learn more about the process. Below are details that went out this week in an email and links where you can register to attend.

There have now been over 8,000 votes placed for Teacher of the Year and the voting closes at 5pm EDT tonight.

Next, a national winner will be selected from the state winners and that person will be flown to Washington, D.C. in August to receive their award in a ceremony with a representative from the U.S. Department of Education. Stay tuned to our website in early August for the announcement about the recipient of the National ABCTE Teacher of the Year Award.

We're having a one day sale today, Wednesday, July 28. You can save $200 off the cost of your ABCTE enrollment and the first 10 people to enroll using the special one day sale discount code will receive a new ABCTE resource, that would normally sell for $50, for free.

Yesterday, we announced a new financial aid program designed to help more people afford our program. Here's what went out in an email:

At ABCTE, we take a great deal of pride in the fact that our program is the most flexible and affordable teaching certification option in many of the states where it is accepted. And we're also always looking for ways to improve on that.

Voting opened last week for our first ABCTE Teacher of the Year award and runs until Thursday, July 29 at 5pm EDT. In early August, the state winners will be announced on our website and then a national winner will be selected. The national winner will be flown to Washington D.C. to receive the award before a representative from the U.S. Department of Education as well as members of ABCTE's Board of Directors and staff.

We're approaching 2,500 teaching certifications issued and, with story after great story coming to us about our teachers’ accomplishments, we have decided it is time to recognize this fantastic work through an ABCTE Teacher of the Year award.