(AACTE, Feb. 6, 2012, Washington, D.C.) – The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) will present its 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award to James D. Anderson, Ph.D., William and Jane Marr Gutgsell Professor and head of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Education Policy, Organization and Leadership Department. The prestigious award, which recognizes an individual's distinguished and outstanding lifetime contributions to the educator preparation profession, will be presented February 17 at AACTE's 64th Annual Meeting in Chicago.

The only one of AACTE's award winners who is personally selected by the president of the Association, Dr. Anderson will be honored for his lifelong commitment to improving student learning and his extraordinary contributions to research, the history of American education and higher education-based educator preparation as a whole.

Among Dr. Anderson's remarkable scholarship are such highly regarded works as The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935 (The University of North Carolina Press, 1988), which earned him the Outstanding Book Award from the American Educational Research Association (AERA). He has amassed a compelling collection of research on the history of higher education desegregation in Southern states, the history of public school desegregation and the representation of African Americans in secondary school history textbooks.

In 2008, Dr. Anderson was elected to the National Academy of Education. He was also named a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study and Behavioral Science at Stanford University, and he recently received the Distinguished Career Contributions Award from AERA's Committee on Scholars of Color in Education.

"James Anderson has dedicated his professional life to helping students realize the best in themselves, particularly those individuals from under-served communities," said Sharon P. Robinson, Ed.D., president and CEO of AACTE. "In addition to his impressive scholarship, he has a genuine enthusiasm for educator development and a reputation for creating a culture of passion, energy and unity in an academic setting. He has continued to produce effective practitioners who have gone on to do inspiring work in education, nationally and internationally. For this, I am proud to honor his lifetime of achievement."

"Dr. James D. Anderson is a uniquely outstanding scholar and administrator," said Mary Kalantzis, Ph.D., dean of UIUC's College of Education. "I can say with the utmost confidence that I have never met a person more committed to the values of higher education and the promise of democracy for all students and faculty. His deep and insightful understanding of diversity has made a significant impact on the world. For more than 40 years, he has been a peerless advocate for enhancing the opportunities of every person he meets. He epitomizes what it means to be a true educator and an inspirational thought leader. He is also arguably the most selfless person one could have the good fortune to know, steadfastly wanting the best for all whilst shunning all personal reward or acclaim."

Find more information on AACTE's 2012 award winners at www.aacte.org.

The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education is a national alliance of educator preparation programs dedicated to the highest quality professional development of teachers and school leaders in order to enhance PK-12 student learning.