HENDERSON – Nevada State College, a four-year public institution, announced today that Dr. Kevin Graziano of the School of Education received the 2021 Edward C. Pomeroy Award from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). This professional achievement award recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of teacher education made at a collegiate, state or national level.
As the leading voice in educator preparation, AACTE represents more than 800 postsecondary institutions nationwide with educator preparation programs, all dedicated to high-quality, evidence-based training that assures educators are ready to teach all learners.
This prestigious award honors Dr. Graziano’s impactful work with shaping educator preparation programs, in order to train teacher candidates — individuals pursuing a teaching license — to successfully teach technology.
“Nevada State College takes tremendous pride in seeing a member of our faculty honored for leading innovations in the preparation of future educators,” said Vickie Shields, Ph.D., provost and executive vice president of Nevada State College. “Dr. Graziano’s work will help teacher candidates become proficient with technology that plays a central role in contemporary classrooms. Teacher candidates who experience consistent and quality exposure to technology will be more likely to include it in their own instruction, preparing our students for technology-driven learning that is already here and will only intensify in the future.”
Recognizing the need for a common set of technology proficiencies among educators who prepare teacher candidates, Dr. Graziano and his colleagues created the Teacher Educator Technology Competencies (TETCs), a set of 12 competencies with related criteria. These provide a framework for integrating technology across an entire teacher preparation program, so that all teacher educators model and integrate technology into their lessons.
Graziano and his team developed the TETCs through a comprehensive effort that included crowdsourcing literature, collecting expert opinions and gathering public comment. His team then distributed the TETCs to teacher educators on a broad scale.
Representing diverse perspectives from a wide array of teacher educators, the TETCs have received support from many leading education organizations, including the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education, the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, the AACTE and the National Technology Leadership Coalition.
Dr. Graziano and his colleagues developed the TETCs in response to the National Educational Technology Plan, released by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology in 2017, which called on educator preparation programs to train teacher candidates in technology instruction.
“For 25 years, AACTE has honored the exceptional contributions of member institutions and individuals in our field,” said Lynn M. Gangone, AACTE’s president and CEO. “This esteemed team of researchers is well-deserving of the 2021 AACTE Pomeroy Award for their innovative contribution to advancing teacher education through the integration of technology.”
For more information about Nevada State College, visit www.nsc.edu.
ABOUT NEVADA STATE COLLEGE
Nevada State College, a four-year public institution, is a member of the Nevada System of Higher Education. Nevada State places a special emphasis on the advancement of a diverse and largely under-served student population. Located on a developing 512-acre campus in the foothills of Henderson, Nevada, the college was established in 2002 as a new tier in the state system between the research universities and the two-year colleges and, as such, is Nevada’s only state college. Nevada State College is one of the fastest-growing colleges in the country and the fastest growing in Nevada. It currently has more than 7,000 students and more than 800 full- and part-time employees. For more information, visit http://nsc.edu.
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