Transitions to Teaching

By Suzie Boss

From parents to researchers to the president, everyone seems to understand the critical role that teachers play in helping students succeed. But for complex reasons ranging from economics to demographics, supplying the demand for high-quality teachers has never been harder. Already, many districts are struggling to fill openings in specific areas, such as math, science, and special education. The prospects won't get any rosier over the coming decade as a wave of baby boomers retires from the profession at the same time that enrollments are expected to rise.

Filling the need for 2.2 million new teachers by the year 2010 will require “persistence and imagination,” says U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. In October, he announced the recipients of 42 Transitions to Teaching grants, including a $750,000 award to the Umatilla-Morrow ESD for its consortium that includes the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory and other partners from rural areas of Oregon and Washington.

Joyce Ley, rural education expert at NWREL, will direct the collaborative project. Partners include three educational service districts (Umatilla-Morrow and North Central ESDs in Oregon and ESD 123, serving several counties in southeastern Washington); Eastern Oregon University in La Grande and Heritage College in Toppenish, Washington; and 40 local school districts — 23 in southeastern Washington and 17 in northeastern Oregon.

Starting in January, the project will provide a cohort of 30 new teachers with an accelerated, intensive training program that will lead to full state certification at the end of the second year. “It's not an alternative certification program,” Ley points out. “What's alternative is the pathway they take” to licensure.

The Northwest Transitions to Teaching Partnership will provide these teacher candidates with practical training in pedagogy and instructional practices, preparing them to hold down classroom assignments at the same time they participate in the intensive training. To overcome challenges posed by rural geography, distance learning and teleconferencing will replace more traditional delivery of classes. Grant funds will provide recipients with stipends and also offset the cost of graduate-level coursework.

In addition to formal training, new teachers will receive additional support from mentors in their local school districts. Research has shown mentoring to be an effective strategy for supporting new teachers and stemming high attrition rates.

Many of the 30 participants are expected to be current residents of rural regions who have a degree in a field other than education but are “placebound,” Ley explains. Because of family commitments or other reasons, “they can't easily go away” to graduate school to earn a teaching certificate. Another category of participants is expected to be students who are about to graduate from college and have an interest in teaching, but lack formal training in education.

Training coordinators for the project are Dick Pratt of Umatilla-Morrow ESD and Bob Plumb, chairman of the Department of Graduate Education and Counseling at Heritage College. Pratt has developed a professional development toolkit that addresses topics required for teacher certification. The toolkit will be used by participating teachers.

The Transitions to Teaching grants, totaling $31 million, are part of a national effort to cast “a wider net for experienced professionals — those with a wealth of experience and knowledge but who lack a teaching credential,“ Paige explained.

Other grants in the Northwest region included a $1.2 million award to the Washington Office of State Superintendent to enhance statewide professional education and certification of new teachers, and an award of $550,000 to Salem-Keizer Public School District in Oregon for a local initiative.

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