UNIVERSITY NEWS - February 2005

MEDIA CONTACT: Andrew LaPlant
561-297-3022, alaplant@fau.edu

FAU Professor Named Executive Director of the Florida Association of Colleges for Teacher Education

BOCA RATON, FL (February 17, 2005) - Florida Atlantic University Professor Robert Shockley has been named executive director of the Florida Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (FACTE).
Shockley will assist the organization, the president and the executive committee by regular communication with other state professional organizations; tracking proposed legislation and rule-making related to teacher education; participating in all meetings of the membership and the executive committee; and serving as a consultant to the standing committees, including professional development and research and policy.

"It is important that Florida as a state has established this leadership role on a continuing basis," said Dr. Richard Kunkel, president of FACTE and dean of the College of Education at the Florida State University. "Those committed to the important task of preparing our state and nation's teachers need a continued and consistent voice of leadership. The children in our schools will benefit from this appointment."

Shockley is a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at FAU. He has over 25 years of administrative experience at the public school, state education agency and higher education levels. Shockley is a past president of FACTE and has been instrumental in leading local and statewide reform efforts in teacher education, as well as national reform in middle school education.

Shockley's current research interest relates to educational policy and teacher retention. He is the primary investigator for a longitudinal study of teacher retention in four South Florida school districts.
For more information on FACTE, please visit their website at www.facte.info.

-FAU-