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Policy + Advocacy

Policy + Advocacy Committee Co-chairs

Cindy Grutzik (for the SPAN Conferences)
San Francisco State University

Eduardo Munoz-Munoz
San Jose State University

Allison Smith
University of Massachusetts Global

Pia Wong (for legislative action)
California State University, Sacramento

The full Policy Committed can be found here

Send the chairs an email message with your questions.

Charge

  1. Advance understanding of teacher education within the policy community through ongoing communication
  2. Inform the board and the membership about emerging policy, and about opportunities to participate in policy development and advocacy.
  3. Serve as a resource in California for those communities addressing education policy and teacher education.
  4. Advocate on behalf of the Teacher Education Community

Action Activities

  1. Coordinate policy activity for the membership and board:
    • Communicate to membership about issues on current policy, and solicit input.
    • Plan conference sessions that are relevant and engaging.
    • Ensure that multiple perspectives are brought forward and that difficult conversations are well facilitated.
    • Maintain key relationships with leg staffers and invite them to conferences.
    • Facilitate CCTE responses to essential policy issues that emerge, i.e., Blue ribbon panel, NCATE/TEAC merger, etc.
    • Research the Ed Coalition; talk to CTC about their relationship with them.
  2. Organize our legislative advocacy:
    • Get on “The List” of people called for advice about teacher education policy (list what we can bring to them) including legislators, CFT, CTA, UTLA, etc.
    • Monitor legislation.
    • Create relationships with Ed Committee staff of Senate and Assembly
    • Organize a calendar of consistent visits to Sacramento, decide who to visit (staffers for sure), and invite members to travel, using the budget that has been allocated.
    • Build towards advocacy day in Sacramento, possibly hire someone to organize visits
  3. Representation. Ensure that the policy committee is represented at the Cal Tog meetings and explore becoming an ex officio or liaison to the CCTC and attend all meetings.
  4. Develop materials.  Develop materials to support policy advocacy, including the website, and policy briefs, list of key home offices, business cards and brochure; rework Policy Framework and create summary for use in legislative visits.
  5. Committee meetings. Continue to meet four times a year, as well as during each conference, and ask the members to bring specific info from groups they’re affiliated with to each meeting

Timetable issues to consider

  1. To be more proactive, divide the year into sections according to the legislative cycle.  Key dates include the following
    • Legislature convenes first week of January
    • Bills introduced by third week of Feb
    • Spring recess in April
    • First week of June is when that House has to pass bills out of the House
    • Summer recess in mid-July
    • Reconvene in mid-August
    • Second week in September wraps up the session
  2. Schedule Advocacy Committee meetings and board meetings in alignment with Legislative timetable
  3. Policy co-chairs will schedule the meetings by mid-July

Activity Calendar

January – February
  • Policy Committee Meeting via Zoom
  • Support committee members who visit district offices (talking points, leg positions, etc.)
  • Refine CCTE policy positions in preparation for SPAN
  • Pre-SPAN Webinar
March – April
  • SPAN
  • Leg Visits
  • Policy Analysis Work – general data collection ideas for “live” legislation
May – June
  • Policy Committee Meeting via Zoom
  • Follow up on Leg Visits with data analyses
July – September
  • To be determined.
October – December
  • CCTE Fall Conference
  • Legislation we want to watch/inform

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