As classroom sizes
continually rise, the North Carolina public school system is unable
to retain qualified teachers in schools, causing cramped learning
environments and low-quality education for the state’s youth.
In an effort to remedy the statewide teacher shortage, the US Department
of Education recently awarded a five-year, $1.6 million grant to
Appalachian State University’s Appalachian Transition to Teaching
Program (ATTP), which will allow faculty to train and prepare anyone
wanting to join the teaching profession from another career.
Appalachian’s Reich College of Education will assume the responsibility
of teaching and licensing in three regional sites. The program will
allow current professionals and temporarily licensed teachers to
gain certification to teach full-time in North Carolina, thus assisting
the urgency to place capable teachers in the classrooms.
Dean of the College of Education, Dr. Charles R. Duke, said he feels
the extreme shortage of teachers is a significant issue, and the
ATTP is a bold step towards correcting the shortage problem.
“I think the incentives [to teach] are the same ones that have
been there all along,” Duke said. “Teaching continues
to be a profession in which you can have a huge impact on a large
number of children, and that’s a very significant contribution
that you can make through your work.”
Duke said the state prepares approximately 3,200 new teachers each
year, but that more than 11,000 are needed in the schools to provide
a sufficient academic environment. The goal of ATTP is to introduce
at least 175 new teachers into the school system within the five
years set forth by the grant.
“This is really our effort to address a problem in the state,
trying to increase teachers, and really one of the strengths of
this is that the people we are working with, for the most part,
are place-bound, and once they’re licensed, they’re probably
going to stay in the schools,” Duke said.
The program will be facilitated by current Appalachian faculty from
the College of Education, who, in addition to their current responsibilities,
will teach in the sites or through web-based courses.
Critics of the program are skeptical as to the preparedness and
quality of the teachers that will be produced by the program. Elementary
education major Erin N. Jaynes said she feels that the shortened
program will not adequately prepare those entering the field from
another profession.
“A lot of lateral entry teachers don’t understand what
they’re getting into, so if we don’t prepare them well
enough they won’t stay in the schools long,” Jaynes said.
“I don’t think they’ll be anywhere near as prepared
in a year or so for what it took me four years to learn.”
Duke said he feels the program will be more than adequate for teaching
and preparing future instructors and said no teacher will be licensed
that does not meet the same requirements as those carrying a four-year
teaching degree.
“Our requirements for us to recommend you for licensure, we’ve
made no distinction; you have to meet the same requirements as students
who would graduate our regular program,” Duke said. |
