University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, August 24, 1988
13
Longer teaching program helps KU grads
By Michael Carolan
Special to the Kansan
Seven years ago, students picked their shoes, decided on them to wear, and revamped, experimental five-year education program at the University of Maryland.
Knowing that they would be in for five years, the students committed themselves to becoming better teachers, in a state education system that is plagued with low salaries and unprepared educators.
Administrators, convinced that following progressive teacher education programs would produce better-prepared teachers, redesigned the four-year program for a better one. The new program, stressing a focus on curriculum, is the first and only five-year education course in the state.
Five-year programs are becoming increasingly popular, said Jerry Bailey, associate dean of education.
"There's an increasing need for more adequately prepared teachers, and that is known." Bailey said. "We are a trender. We are doing things that future schools will be doing."
Three years ago, the School of Education graduated the first group of students from the new program. Two years later, 60% of in-the-classroom experience than students in most four-year programs, and 15 hours toward a graduate degree.
Students who recently graduated said they were better prepared to teach, but they also found skimping in the curriculum and a repetitious graduate program.
Low nav
The Kansas National Education Association reported that Kansas ranked 31rd in the nation in average graduate school year. The average salary in Kansas is now $24,364, without fringe benefits, a 41 percent increase from 1987. In 1987 it was $17,737, a jump from the $1,699 beginning salary of graduates coming out of education programs in Kansas. The average income has increased only 10.5 percent.
"We're making progress at reaching the national average," said Carleton Schmitt, president of the National Association for adequate state support that跟
Schmitt said that on the average, states contribute 50 percent of the entire state education program, and local and county taxes pick up the rest. The State of Kansas pays for the state education program, she said.
"The literacy rate and dropout rates are lower than most states, so teachers need to stay on top of the older teachers will retire, and we'll need teachers. My concern is that we won't be able to attract folks who don't know doing something about salaries."
Schmitt said that many superintendents thought better-prepared teachers were coming out of education schools. She said scholarship applications showed that education graduates had better attitudes toward concerns concerning public education better than they did several years ago.
Teacher certification standards also were raised to produce better teachers, she said.
"Students that were marginal aren't even attempting to go into the field," she said.
More jobs
Seventy-three students registered with the University Placement Program. They attended Education in the spring of 1886, the first year that students in the five-year program graduated. Twenty-three students received getting jobs by September 1, 1886.
Of the 75 graduates who registered in 1997, the center reported that 23 students, or 30 percent, found jobs by Sept. 1, 1987.
Jerry Bailey said that placements were much higher than they had been before.
"We're placing 25 percent more of our graduates than we did under our four-year program," he said.
Allicia Gibbs, associate professor of music education, who was head of the fifth-year program, said the school needed a better tracking
"We need a better way to communicate and see how they are doing," she said.
She said that because students didn't have any formal ties with the school after they graduated, they didn't leave their address when they
She said the responsibilities were shifted when Ed Meyen, dean of
education, took over in 1985, and the changeover made it difficult to track students.
Other schools have had better luck with their graduates.
Other schools
Out of 153 graduate of the educa-
program at Emporia State Univer-
sity in Chicago, he taught de-
teaching jobs by Sept. 1, 1987,
larry Larry (Murray), career
saver, and plcpepantor.
He said that only seven of the 1987 graduates were still looking for jobs in spring 1988.
In 1986, he said that 57 percent received teaching jobs.
Bolley Alice, associate dean of education at Wichita State University, said that 74 percent of 1987 graduates who registered with the placement office at Wichita State University had 72 percent of 1986 graduates had jobs by Sept. 1, 1986.
Although the five-year program boasts of better-prepared teachers, some students worry that they might not be any more marketable because school districts won't realize what a five-year program or the five-year program at KU produces.
Practice teaching
Chris Dilton, Overland Park senior, said the program gave students a chance to see whether they wanted to be teachers.
He said that because students are able to take charge of the classroom toward the preparation of early learners, preparing lessons, teaching, grading papers and dealing with the stress of teaching - they get a good idea of what the real world is.
"Students know when they come here that they be in for five years," he said. "The last year gives them a chance if they want to be real teachers."
He said most districts would soon know what kind of teachers were coming out of the five-year program.
"But Kristen Calafan, a spring graduate from Lawrence, worried that school district arrest aware of the quality of teachers KU produces.
"You get a lot of experience, but if don't know if the public school system realizes that," she said. "I don't think they know about it yet. They don't know what the fifth-year program is, probably more so in other
Supposedly, you have more experience when you graduate. Some students took over the whole classroom. I had a great experience. It builds confidence. I feel very prepared to go into the classroom.'
S
states "
She said that many districts in which she interviewed, including some in Kansas, didn't know anything about the program.
Bob Carter, director of elementary personnel for the Shawnee Mission School District, KU graduates, said he was impressed with the five-year program.
"The graduates are well on their
journey to become certainty helpful," Carter said.
"They are also very serious students if they are going to spend five years
Carter said the district hires the best applicant for the job.
"We interview on an individual basis," he said. "There are many fine applicants from other schools on a four-year program that are very capable. If they have five years experience, that's great. If they don't, that's fine."
Tom Melia, 1987 KU graduate, said that he wasn't sure if the extra year would guarantee a job.
"I don't know if it was making a big difference in getting a job, but maybe others did." said Melia, who hasn't seen her graduate. "I think there are two high-quality candidates, they're from a four-year school; use less."
But Melia said he didn't regret going to school for five years to become a certified teacher.
"I don't regret being a substitute teacher now," said Miaela, who went into computers after he didn't find a teaching job. "That's how it goes. That's part of the game; he six years ago got a training job. I don't know if I'd be in a different position if I graduated in four years."
Teacher salaries in Kansas are based on paid teaching experience and graduate credit hours. In the past, teachers applied for a position who has no paid teaching experience, but 15 hours of graduate credit, would be paid $11 more a year than a graduation program at Emporia State.
Beth Baker, 1967 KU graduate,
said that the extra year and $1,500
she spent in tuition costs didn't mean
that much in the job market.
"A lot of it was being frustrated because it only put me up on the pay scale at the maximum $300," said Baker, who was offered a job in the Lee's Summit, Mo., school district several months after she graduated. She works a part at the interview, but it doesn't matter on the pay scale.
Baker now works as a camp recruiter and counselor, making several thousand dollars more than she would in a first-year teaching job while using her education background.
"I'm personally more prepared, which is great. As far as the school districts are concerned, they looked out of school of a few hours."
"Supposedly, you have more experience when you graduate." Baker said. "Some students took over the whole classroom. I had a great experience. It built confidence. I feel ready to go into the classroom."
Lisa Boerger, 1887, KU graduate,
said that she learned more about
teaching in her fifth year than all
other years combined. At first,
she didn't like the idea of going to school five years for a education degree.
Boerger said she found it difficult to understand the value of paying for an extra year of school.
"I thought it was ridiculous," said Boerger, who was hired by Blue Valley Middle School the day after I took his internship. "I didn't think it was worth it. I don't know. If I hadn't found a job, I might have felt that it wasn't worth it. But what I learned in class during my internship was great."
"We weren't making any money."
said Boerger, who makes about $500 more a year than she would if she didn't have 15 hours of graduate school. "We don't have a state tuition. It doesn't seem fair. While the teachers whose classrooms are full we have shelves, we're paying full tuition."
Graduate courses
Some students who graduated said they found much of the graduate course work repetitive.
Although the student teaching and internships were valuable for Baker, she said that the many of the graduate courses she taught are repetitive of undergraduate courses.
"If I wanted to get a master's in counseling, the fifth year didn't help me at all toward counseling, which is what I would have wanted," she said. "Most of the hours are curriculum and instruction."
Calahan said that some of the courses she took at the graduate level didn't do what they were designed to do.
"Some of the classes were a big waste of time," she said. "Some were repetitions because it seemed that I had them earlier. It seemed as if they stretched out the program to make it five years."
She said that courses also were not challenging.
"You supposedly got kicked out of the school if you don't make a 3.0 during your graduate year and I was scared," she said. "I just got the best job I could get in this city (our years), it had to be because something was a little easier."
Bailey said that the graduate program and other details in the school were continually being reworked.
"Sometimes content is inadvertently repeated and sometimes it is on purpose." Bailey said. "There are many ways to do this, but courses after student evaluation."
And changing seems to be what the KU education program does to remain the progressive program that it is.
"That is the fifth year program process," be said. "We continually re-evaluate and rework some of our projects, but we continue to produce quality teachers."
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