The 23rd Annual Conference of the Teacher Education Division of The Council for Exceptional Children will be held Nov. 6-9 at the Tropicana Hotel. This year's theme is "The New Millennium: Issues, Concerns, Solutions."

More than 600 participants from the United States and Canada are expected to attend the conference, which will feature 200 presentations on a variety of topics, such as teacher preparation, professional standards, teacher education reforms, technology in the classroom, mentoring, and alternative certification.

The opening session on Monday will feature Dr. John Visser, internationally renowned teacher educator from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, who will present the keynote address "The More You Label, The Less You Include." The address is set for 6-8 p.m. in the Caribbean Ballroom.

A special session dealing with "Multiple Perspectives on Future Directions for Teacher/Personnel Preparation" will be held 8-11 a.m., Tuesday. Participants representing deans of colleges of education, academic department chairs, parents, state departments of education, local education agencies, policy makers, researchers, paraprofessionals, and faculty in institutions of higher education will discuss their perspectives on the major issues facing teacher and personnel preparation and how best to resolve those issues. Dr. Nasim Dil, a UNLV professor in the department of special education and chair of the conference, will lead this session, which will take place in the Caribbean Ballroom.

Also on Tuesday, a debate titled "Views of College and University Teacher Education Programs in Preparing Prospective Teachers: Are They Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution?" will examine the challenges faced by colleges and universities with programs for teacher education. The debaters will be Dr. Gene Hall, dean of UNLV's College of Education, who will represent the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, and Dr. Kathleen Madigan, a representative with the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, an organization that advocates reinvention of K-12 education. The debate will take place from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Caribbean Ballroom.

On Nov. 8, Dr. Shirley McBride from the University of British Columbia will present a special session on "Putting Research, Policy, and Philosophy to Work: A New Vision of Teacher Education to Enable the Delivery of Quality Services in the New Millennium." Her session is set for 8-8:45 a.m. Dr. Lou Danielson from the U.S. Department of Education's office of special education programs will speak from 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. about the federal perspectives on teacher and personnel preparation. Both lectures will be held in the Caribbean Ballroom.

The conference is open to the public. A registration fee will be charged. For more information about the conference, call Dr. Nasim Dil at 895-1103.