ESU graduates featured on NCATE website

Two Emporia State University graduates are featured on the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) website. ESU graduates Sara Turner and Matthew Lafko provided testimonials about ESU’s nationally recognized teacher preparation program and how it prepared them to be successful classroom teachers.

Turner, currently a Middle School Math teacher at Garland Independent School District in Texas, said in her testimonial, “I am really fortunate, with the shortage of teachers here, out of 18 new teachers, I am the only one with a degree in education. ESU really prepares you for situations like these, where the alternative plans do not. While the [teachers from alternative plans] talked about the terrible day they had, I talked about how wonderful my classes are.”

Lafko, assistant principal at Northwest Elementary School in Lexington, NC, said in his testimonial, “Each day I am presented with a situation as an assistant principal, I draw on my knowledge gained through the School Leadership program at Emporia. However, the most outstanding feature of the program at ESU was the faculty and staff willingness and ability to see me as a true adult distant learner.”

The teacher education program at ESU was selected as one of four “model” teacher preparation programs in the nation by Dr. Art Levine, former President of Columbia University's Teachers College and Professor of Education College. Over 92 % of graduates from the ESU Teachers College remain in the profession after five years.  Nationally, 30 to 50% leave the profession before completing three years in the classroom.

To view the finished testimonials on the homepage of NCATE's website, visit http://www.ncate.org. NCATE is the profession’s mechanism to help establish high quality teacher preparation. Through the process of professional accreditation of schools, colleges and departments of education, NCATE works to make a difference in the quality of teaching and teacher preparation today, tomorrow, and for the next century.

Last Updated July 2, 2007>