The Distinguished Program Award (DPA) in teacher education has been established to recognize and honor a specific “quality” identified from The New York State Regents' Standards for Teacher Preparation. Institutions offering teacher education programs would address ONE of the following specific qualities:

I. Partnership with the liberal arts and sciences
II. Pre-service partnerships with the local school districts
III. Professional Development Partnerships
IV. Programs for Alternative Certification

Inherent to these “qualities” are the criteria recognized by the Association of Teacher Educators' (ATE) award for the Distinguished Program in Teacher Education. The ATE criteria for program consideration are as follow:

• Have been cooperatively developed and administered by
institutions of higher education and local education agencies
along with other appropriate educational agencies;
• Have clearly stated goals directed at the establishment of
identifiable teacher behaviors;
• Have an evaluation protocol that is appropriate, operational,
and directly related to its goals;
• Provide data to demonstrate that after program implementation, goals were achieved; and
• Are based on theoretically sound principles that are adaptable to other teacher education programs.

Institutions achieving the Distinguished Program Award (DPA) will be honored by the NYSATE/NYACTE membership at the Fall conference. If considered appropriate the Executive Boards of NYSATE/ NYACTE will nominate the program for the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) Distinguished Program in Teacher Education award in October of the same year.

The R. Neal Appleby Outstanding Teacher Educator Award is given each year by the New York State Association of Teacher Educators to one or more teacher educators who exhibit characteristics by which Neal Appleby is remembered by his colleagues and friends. The award is presented at the Spring Conference.

Neal Appleby was an educator of teachers for twenty years at Syracuse University, until his untimely death in 1993. He was a Renaissance man who loved people, ideas, activities, and teaching. He was concerned with all his students as persons, and he strove for their whole development. Neal was a happy, warm, friendly, caring person who took time to talk to people. Perhaps more importantly, Neal took time to listen.   His students spoke of him as a special kind of person who deeply loved teaching and who conveyed that love to all with whom he worked.

The R. Neal Appleby Outstanding Teacher Educator Award recognizes individuals who have worked to nurture the intellectual, personal, and professional growth and development of teachers at various stages of their professional lives. The selection criteria are based on the Standards for Teacher Educators published by the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE). These seven standards, along with suggested indicators and sources of evidence, are available on ATE's website at www.ate1.org , and listed (in brief) on the reverse side of this sheet.