Although the controversies and emotions surrounding the No ChildLeft Behind Act have started just recently, officials at TheUniversity of Memphis's College of Education have spent severalsemesters adapting the college's curriculum and support services tobetter prepare future teachers.
"We need to be responsive," said Martha Alberg, assistant deanfor pre-kindergarten through 12th grade programs. "We have to beproactive."
Proactivty has meant loads of work for the College of Education,said college dean Ric Hovda. Increasing the time in classinterpreting data from test results, developing new programs tohelp teachers of math, science and reading, and participating intask forces and boards in both area schools and the community areonly a few things Hovda's faculty is doing to better prepare itsstudents for the classroom.
The college sponsored a forum Sept. 19 that explained thedetails of the No Child Left Behind law and its consequences forthe schools, and two more forums are planned for later this yearand for the spring. And starting last year, the focus of a springconference in Jackson, Tenn., co-sponsored by the College ofEducation, shifted to cover aspects of the new legislation.
Not all the College of Education programs are a direct responseto No Child Left Behind, Hovda said, but they have all beeninfluenced in one way or another.
"This has been coming down for some time," Hovda said.
The College of Education partnered with the Memphis City Schoolsand the Plough Foundation to develop the New Teacher Center, whichopened spring 2003.
The center helps 75 new teachers though the first few years ofteaching. Five full-time teachers who have been released from theirclasses each provide hands-on assistance to 15 of their beginningcolleagues.
The two-year program was adopted from one that has run for 14years at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Of the teachersthat participated in the program there, 95 percent stayed inteaching after the first few years, which is good in a professionthat has only a 50 percent retention rate for teachers after thefirst couple of years, according to the center's Web site.
The program's built-in assessment helps new teachers gradethemselves and their students by looking at things like classroomdata and TCAP scores, said Shirley Key, director of the center.
The response, she said, has been positive. "Teachers andprincipals have called to get help," Key said. "But we can't be inevery school."
The No Child Left Behind Act has been a hot topic in classdiscussions at the College of Education, said education graduatestudent Quincey Young, who said any additional preparation ofstudents for the effects of the act are definitely necessary.
"It's like we're lemmings being herded off the bridge," he said."And no one is stopping to ask any questions. I would not want tojump in ill-prepared."
