ESU recognized for pioneering education program

Calling attention to the crisis that confronts teacher preparation in the United States, Edutopia has identified 10 schools of education that are blazing the trail to better practices. One of those schools is The Teachers College at Emporia State University.

Edutopia cites ESU’s Teachers College for pioneering a system of professional development programs for local school districts in Kansas. Also singled out is the use of a universal student-assessment system to measure student success. Faculty in The Teachers College use the results to pinpoint the program’s strengths and weaknesses and ensure that each graduate has appropriate teaching skills.

Tamara Cassidy, a 2006 ESU graduate, recalls that when she started work, “it felt like I’d already taught for a year. I felt prepared for a lot of the basics, so I was able to focus on more nitty-gritty things, like how to adapt my lessons to meet the needs of all my students.”

A capstone of ESU’s program is the Teacher Work Sample, a portfolio of assessments illustrating how well a student teacher delivers an entire unit of instruction.

Dr. Tes Mehring, dean of The Teachers College, says the teacher education program’s success rests on three bases. “The involvement of Arts and Sciences faculty is a key ingredient,” Mehring said. “It’s rare to find the kind of participation and ownership in teacher education that we have here among our Arts and Sciences faculty.”

Mehring said the second key component is the way Kansas teachers have embraced the system of professional development that ESU created in the 1990s.

“And of course the third ingredient is the quality of the faculty that we have in The Teachers College,” Mehring concluded.

The payoff for this hard work and dedication comes in the form of surveys that show school principals consider ESU grads well prepared for their teaching responsibilities. More than 90 percent of the graduates are still teaching after three years; one in six Kansas teachers has earned a degree from Emporia State.

Each of the institutions and their education programs are featured in the November/December issue of Edutopia and on Edutopia.org (www.edutopia.org/schools-of-education). “These 10 schools represent a cross-section of the most promising innovations in teacher preparation today,” said James Daly, editor in chief of Edutopia.

Edutopia is published by The George Lucas Educational Foundation, founded in 1991 by filmmaker George Lucas as a nonprofit operating foundation that publishes media to document and disseminate the most innovative practices in K–12 education, including how technology offers many new opportunities for teaching and learning. Through its Edutopia.org Web site, the award-winning Edutopia magazine, and Edutopia video, the Foundation is a leading resource for educators who want to improve schools for the twenty-first century.

For more information on The Teachers College at Emporia State University, call 620-341-5367 or visit www.emporia.edu/teach.

Last Updated February 1, 2008>