After almost 35 years at the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education—with most of that time in the top job—David G. Imig has announced that he is retiring.
Mr. Imig, who first joined the nearly 800-member association in 1970, will stay in the post until a new president is named.
A nationwide search has already been initiated by the association’s board of directors.
Mary Brabeck, the dean of the education school at New York University in New York City and the chairwoman of the board, said the goal is to name a new president by next spring.
At that point, Mr. Imig, 64, plans to seek a post-retirement sabbatical at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, in Palo Alto, Calif.
“Obviously, when you walk away from something like this, you’re proud of the stuff you’ve done, but you think about the agenda that’s left to be done,” Mr. Imig said last week.
Ms. Brabeck said in a statement that Mr. Imig had served the AACTE in an “exemplary fashion.”
“We thank him for all he has done for teachers and colleges of education nationwide.”
Growing Scrutiny
During Mr. Imig’s tenure at the association—which represents colleges and universities with undergraduate programs—teacher education programs have undergone greater scrutiny and are facing increasing demands to produce highly qualified teaching candidates.
Most recently, he has been critical of growing alternative-licensing efforts, such as the American Board for the Certification of Teacher Excellence, which certify teachers who have not been through traditional preparation programs. And last year, he ran into trouble for distributing questions from an ABCTE test to colleagues in what observers called an attempt to rally opposition against such programs. (“Congress to Probe Teacher Ed. Group and Its President,” June 18, 2003.)
A.T. Kearney, a Washington-based group, will help conduct the search to replace Mr. Imig, and Charles Bunting, the group’s vice president and the former chancellor of the Vermont College System, will lead the process.
A search committee, which will be led by Clara Jennings, the dean of the education school at DePaul University in Chicago, and Lynn Weisenbach, the past chair of the Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education, will review applications, interview candidates, and then recommend five finalists to the AACTE board’s executive committee.
That committee will make a final recommendation to the full board.
