American public schools have no historical counterpart in any age. It is not merely the notion that education is the pathway for a better life - the means to achieve one’s dreams - that distinguishes American public education from others. It is the idea of universal access for all citizens, regardless of one’s station, so that for the least endowed one is not confined to the same station as one’s parents simply by being born into it. The French political observer and commentator, Alexis de Tocqueville, in the mid-19th Century, may have captured the notion best when he suggested that the American public school (compulsory universal education) was the greatest social experiment in the history of mankind.

Educational leadership in public schools carries with it a very public and uniquely important role in American society. To be sure, the classroom remains what it has always been - the focal point for learning. But, the tools and resources teachers have available to ply their craft; the climate necessary for teachers to do their best work; the structure and order required for children and parents to be assured of a safe, healthy, positively reinforcing learning environment, and to maximize opportunities to learn are all the responsibility of leadership -
AEL members.

Keeping abreast of trends, following the latest research, monitoring best practices, having access to colleagues for sharing successes and problem-solving are leadership responsibilities. Membership in certain education associations helps make these challenges attainable. AEL, with the cooperation of the Board of Education, offers exclusive access to
its members for a payroll deduction option for dues to the leading professional associations. Payroll deduction for dues to AEL’s professional association partners makes membership affordable.

Association for Career and Technical Education

ACTE and its Maryland affiliate, Maryland Vocational Association (MVA), is a new AEL educational partner as of the spring of 2007. ACTE was founded in 1926, 10 years after what is generally considered the first significant federal funding legislation of America’s public schools, the Smith-Hughes ACT. Smith-Hughes inaugurated specific emphasis on vocational training, partly to stem the tide of school drop-outs and partly to enhance the enormous appetite for a trained workforce for America’s burgeoning industry.

Over the decades ACTE has evolved as the original concept of vocational education has adapted to the changing workplace environment, especially in the last couple of decades.
The impact of electronics and technology and ever more sophisticated workplace niches has changed the school setting to a point barely recognizable to anyone who remembers vocational education of even the 1970s.

AEL welcomes ACTE as an educational partner and looks forward to a mutually rewarding relationship in the quest for a quality education for every child.