Grant aims to recruit needed new teachers
Money targets those in midcareer who are seeking a change
By Monte Whaley
Denver Post Education Writer
Wednesday, October 16, 2002 - Fired! dot-commers, burned-out engineers and wandering history majors will get more help sliding into Colorado classrooms from a $4.4 million U.S. Department of Education grant aimed at recruiting and training new teachers. The new money may usher in a different breed of teacher who has worked for years in other jobs but now finds teaching the next challenging frontier, said Victoria Marquesen, associate dean of education at the University of Southern Colorado.
If we can do our job and help them in their teaching, they can change the complexion of what goes on in the school," Marquesen said Tuesday.
Southern Colorado has one of three teacher education programs in the state that will get the funds over the next five years. The programs were picked because they help districts with the biggest, most dire need of new teachers, according to the department.
Colorado's share is part of nearly $35 million to be given this year under the Education Department's Transition to Teaching program, the agency said Tuesday.
The funds will help head off a shortage of teachers in critical subjects such as math, science, foreign languages, English as a second language, reading and special education, according to the department. Those shortages are likely to worsen as student enrollments increase and current teachers retire.
U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige is a proponent of allowing non-teachers with an interest in helping kids a quick entry into the teaching profession, bypassing more traditional teacher colleges.
That's why the Transition to Teaching program is aimed at bolstering alternative-licensing efforts. This will attract mid-career professionals, paraprofessionals and recent college graduates with non-education degrees to teaching, Paige said. "We must tap the energy, experience and eagerness of individuals from non-education backgrounds into the teaching profession," Paige said. Every state's funded program "will help school districts be much more creative as they address the demand for teachers."
Western State College in Gunnison will get a $357,588 annual grant over the next five years; the Centennial Board of Cooperative Services (BOCES) in Longmont will net a $179,953 annual grant; and Southern Colorado will receive a $350,000 annual influx of funds.
Southern Colorado helps train nontraditional teachers in 17 school districts. It hopes to use the federal funds in several ways, including starting a two-way video system to consult with new teachers in rural schools, Marquesen said. The money can also free up veteran teachers to become classroom mentors for their less-experienced colleagues, she said.
"We have the ability to get teachers to become models of instruction," Marquesen said. "And that is important in this profession."
Southern Colorado's alternative teaching effort has attracted a lot of middle-aged professionals who have left or been forced out of their former jobs.
They also share an expressed interest in helping kids. "Some of them are coming from business. We do have engineers and dot-com people and military people," Marquesen said. "They've told us they want to make a difference in a child's life."
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