Grad Participates in White House Briefings - The College of Education

Angela Angela Bradbury, an elementary undergraduate student in the College of Education's Urban Institute for Teacher Education and 2011 graduate from the University of Utah, was selected by the American Association of Colleges of Teachers of Education to participate in House and Senate Congressional Briefings as well as a White House briefing in Washington, D.C. on May 9th and 10th. The briefings focused on preparing teacher candidates to work with all students in their classrooms, including students with disabilities. Angela was the only teacher education candidate in the nation selected to participate in the briefings and was accompanied by her grandfather, Ronald Nelson (former school administrator in Utah's Tintic School District)

As quoted in the national publication Education Daily, Angela commented on her teacher preparation program at the University of Utah during the briefings, stating that “all teachers should be afforded the kind of training she received on RTI, Universal Design for Learning, and differentiated instruction as well as how to create a positive classroom environment.” Such training requires strategic partnerships between school districts and schools of education in addition to “robust clinical preparation,” added coauthor of the AACTE/NCLD paper, Preparing General Education Teachers to Improve Outcomes for Students with Disabilities, Marleen Pugach, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “If we don't, we shouldn't be surprised that teachers do not feel well enough prepared to work with our most challenging students.”

Angela Bradbury completed her clinical internship at Escalante Elementary, a Title I school in the Salt Lake City School District, where she created student portfolios with evidence of how she applied the strategies she learned in her methods courses in teaching learners of varying abilities. “It wasn't that you were asked to go specifically work with English language learners or special-education students, but in Title I, you're more than likely to come across those situations,” she said. “I shouldn't have to classify my students. When my students walk through the door, they are all learners and it doesn't matter if one doesn't know English or one is a special education student. It's about getting to know the students and creating a positive classroom that will help all students.”

Elementary Education Grad Participates in Congressional/White House Briefings

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