TEACHER PROGRAM ACCLAIMED

A new report has painted a bleak picture of teacher-education programs at the nation's colleges

But the situation is different at Southeast Missouri State University, said Dr. Dale Nitzschke, the school's president.

Southeast has received national acclaim for its revamped teacher-education program. The program is nationally accredited.

It gets students into the public schools early in their college careers and provides them with a series of field-based experiences long before they get to the final student-teaching stage.

The national study found that fewer than half of the nation's 1,200 teachers' colleges met national-accreditation standards. As many as 50,000 people annually enter the teaching profession with inadequate training, the study said.

It found that nearly one in four high school teachers did not take enough college courses to major or minor in their main teaching field.

Nitzschke said well-trained teachers are essential to improving education at all levels.

At Southeast, the College of Education focuses not just on how to teach, but the subject matter as well.

A student who wants to become a high-school science teacher takes the same science courses as a science major, said Dr. Shirley Stennis-Williams, dean of the college.

Even elementary-school majors are required to specialize in academic areas. What that means is that students end up with almost the equivalent of a minor in English, science, social studies or some other academic field, Stennis-Williams said.

"We want them to be very good at something" she said.

The college is building two high-tech classrooms to better train future teachers how to use computers and other technology in their teaching.

"Good programs are not created in a vacuum," she said. "It is a universitywide approach."

Southeast started as a teacher-education program more than a century ago. "We are now preparing teachers for the 21st century,' Stennis-Williams said.