March Leadership Message

Dear TED members,

Welcome to March! For those of you with us in Louisville for CEC, we certainly felt the “lion” of March with rain and winds. But there were many great things happening inside the Convention Center. Here are some highlights:

But first, your TED Conference Committee wants me to let you know that the Conference site is open and accepting proposals! The timeline is March 1 to April 15—Submit a Proposal Here!

• Your Board met all day on Wednesday to report, strategize, and learn. To find out all that has been happening and what the groups have planned, check out the Board Reports and the SIG/Caucus Reports
• One new action the Board took was to approve a Strategic Equity Initiative Funding Process. With this process, SIGs, caucuses, and committees can apply for funding for special activities or projects they would like to do to reach their goals and address TED’s strategic plan. Details are here
• On Thursday, we had many informative TED sessions and a great TED/DR Collaborative session focused on teacher workforce policy research. Thanks to Erica McCray, Liz Bettini, Betsy Talbott, and Tammy Kolbe!  
• Thursday afternoon, we held our General Business meeting which included introductions of new Board members, hints of exciting activities to come, and a review of our progress toward the goals of the strategic plan. Here are the slides from the meeting
• After the meeting, we had a nice social event where folks could see and be seen. Our social was a bit smaller than usual because many of our TED members joined DR in celebrating our very own Liz Bettini receiving the DR Early Career Research award!
• Friday brought early morning Kaleidoscope roundtables and poster events. Lots of students and faculty working together!
• I want to take the opportunity to thank Brannan Meyers, our Executive Director, for all of her work to make things happen at CEC! She did a great job for all of us!

Outside of convention, our TED groups are active and always looking for more member participation. Check the website for our calendar of events but read on for some highlights.

Policy Committee

Kait Brannan has a new Washington Update-so much is happening in the states and at the federal level. Please follow along with Kait’s updates or join her for the virtual Washington Update on the third Thursday of each month. Check the calendar on the TED website for links.

Diversity Caucus

Check out TED’s Diversity Caucus Spotlight Series, an ongoing project where doctoral students interview leaders in DEI work within TED. You can start with this video, where Dr. Cristina Santamaría Graff (Interim Assistant Dean of Student Support and Diversity and an Associate Professor of Special Education and Urban Teacher Education at Indiana University Purdue University in Indianapolis) is interviewed by Kelley Taksier (doctoral student in special education at the University of Florida). https://youtu.be/rUaQHjtcxS0

Paraeducator SIG

Paraeducator SIG is launching a monthly spotlight series on paraeducator research where the authors of a recently published article join us for an informal conversation about their paraeducator research. For more information visit– https://tedcec.org/paraeducator-sig

Publications Committee

The Publications Committee published TED 2022 Conference Proceedings. They are beginning to do a review of the TED website—to help out, contact me! I know they would love some assistance. Don’t forget to check out JOSEP and TESE

Did I mention your TED Conference Committee wants me to let you know that the Conference site is open and accepting proposals! The timeline is March 1 to April 15—Submit a Proposal Here!

Amid all of this great work, I know that there are many of you who are experiencing stress from  significant policy shifts in your institutions and in PK-12 settings. Please contact me at mweiss9@gmu.edu to talk through what is happening and to let me know how TED can support you.

Thanks for being a TED member!

Peggy Weiss

President