Thursday, October 22, 2009
The School of Education recently announced its plans to switch from a five-year degree program to a four-year degree program that would include a teaching certificate. The Kansas Department of Education should approve this plan. It will benefit not only students in the school, but it will help Kansas as well.
The proposed plan has many positive effects including creating a more efficient degree program and saving students a fifth year of tuition. This change would also draw more students to pursue education degrees and ultimately increase the number of qualified teachers available to the community.
Steven White, chairman of the department of Curriculum and Teaching declined to comment because the plan has not been finalized.
Currently, students participate in a full fifth year of student teaching beyond their degree to receive their teaching certificate. The proposed plan will eliminate this mandatory requirement.
“From what I understand, they will still be offering the five-year plan for people interested in pursuing their master’s,” said Ashley Stickler, Overland Park sophomore who is currently pursuing a degree in elementary education. “They are supposedly condensing it and putting the volunteer work in your earlier years.”
Because the change would be implemented in 2011, upon approval, Stickler and other current students graduating after this date will be affected. Though the details haven’t been set in stone, one thing is certain, the changeover could include complications.
Amanda Frederick, Lawrence senior, said she acknowledged both positive and negative affects of the change.
“The transition might be a little shaky,” Frederick said. “I see it being a source of some confusion and frustration.”
Frederick is currently enrolled in the five-year program and is in her fourth year, meaning the new plan is not an option for her.
Part of the force behind this change is the hope of a more efficient system for degree completion, according to the school’s press release. This program will produce more quality teachers to not only counteract the statewide demand for teachers, but the demand for teachers in the entire country. Frederick said this will be the major benefit to the four-year program.
“I think there is definitely more of a demand. We always turn out high quality teachers from the School of Ed.,” Frederick said.
She said that doing away with some general education requirements and focusing more on individual content areas would be a benefit to students.
Frederick sees a possible flaw in the amount of student teaching that four-year graduates would be required to complete.
“There are some people that just don’t connect with the students very well,” Frederick said. “You don’t really find that out until you have students to connect with. I couldn’t imagine jumping straight from [classes] into teaching as a career.”
Even so, Frederick said she has faith in the school’s readiness to prepare students.
“Having less experience student teaching will be scary, but most people will probably be able to handle it, “ Frederick said. “I’m sure that they’ll find ways of preparing people adequately in that amount of time.”
Focusing on relevant classes and eliminating unnecessary curriculum will allow students the opportunity to gain student teaching experience and complete the degree in four years. This is a positive change that the Department of Education should support. This plan will best facilitate the realistic needs of the community and the University students.
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