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WCU celebrates national teacher education award
By Derek Hodges
Area educators gathered at Western Carolina University’s College of Education and Allied Professions Monday (March 13) to celebrate the school’s recent national award that recognizes teacher education programs that exhibit outstanding collaboration with local school systems.
The Association of Teacher Educators presented its 2006 Distinguished Program in Teacher Education award to WCU Tuesday, Feb. 21, at the association’s annual meeting in Atlanta. Arizona State University also was a finalist for the top honor given by ATE.
Educators from across Western North Carolina joined with Western Carolina University officials like Michael Dougherty, right, dean of the College of Education and Allied Professions, to celebrate the university’s receiving a national award. The education program was presented the Association of Teacher Educator’s 2006 Distinguished Program in Teacher Education Award. Taking part in the celebration are, from left, Cherokee County Superintendent Jeanette Hedrick, Jackson County Superintendent Sue Nations and Asheville City Schools Superintendent Robert Logan.
“This is a unique college,” WCU Chancellor John Bardo said during Monday’s reception. “What I like about this college is they desire to care about children.”
Bardo said partnerships between teachers, the university and its students, and community members led to the award.
“It’s that partnership that we’re celebrating today,” Bardo said. “We’re looking forward to many more years of development. We will continue to work for the betterment of the children of Western North Carolina.”
Bardo also announced plans for a new education facility that’s been put into the university system budget by University of North Carolina President Erskine Bowles. If approved by state lawmakers, the proposal will bring Western a building for its education program that will further cement the education school’s outstanding reputation, Bardo said.
WCU won the award for its teacher preparation program that features ongoing collaboration with school systems across Western North Carolina through the School-University Teacher Education Partnership. SUTEP is part of Western’s effort to improve the academic achievement of students in all grade levels by providing assistance to educators at each step in their development – when they are student teachers, when they first enter the teaching profession, and when they are in the middle of their careers and are seeking additional professional development.
“Receiving this prestigious national award is certainly an important validation of our mission to prepare high-quality teachers for North Carolina’s public schools,” said Michael Dougherty, dean of the College of Education and Allied Professions at Western. “As much as this award means to us in the teacher education program, however, the bigger reward comes from knowing that our graduates are making a real difference in the lives of young people, and that our faculty members are making a real difference in the lives of our teachers.”
Dougherty called the award “a strong endorsement” of the region’s public schools and their involvement in the university’s teacher preparation program.
“We have a saying at Western that ‘it takes a partnership to prepare a teacher,’” he said. “By working closely with our school partners, we strive to prepare teachers who can help all students learn to a high level of academic achievement. We call it a ‘partnership for performance.’”
Established in 1997 as one of 14 partnerships in North Carolina, SUTEP has formal agreements with 80 schools in 17 WNC school systems and informal partnerships with the remaining school systems and charter schools in the region.
Through the partnership, which also involves faculty members from Western’s College of Arts and Sciences, educators from local systems help provide a “real-world classroom” perspective to students in the university’s teacher education program. Teachers serve as clinical faculty, co-teaching selected courses with Western instructors in an effort to blend theory and practice, and as cooperating teachers working with faculty members on education research projects. Local school systems also provide pre-service field experience for Western’s student teachers – an activity that had been taking place long before the formal partnership began.
“Western was founded as a teacher education institution, and preparing highly qualified teachers has always been among the hallmarks of this university,” said Chancellor John Bardo. “That responsibility has become even more critical because continuing prosperity for our region, state and nation must be built upon the foundation of education. We are proud of the vital role our teacher education graduates are playing in ensuring that future, and we are thrilled that our partnership with local school systems has received this significant national recognition.”
The superintendent of one of those school system partners said she is not surprised by the national recognition Western’s teacher education program is receiving.
“I am a graduate of WCU with three education degrees and am very thankful for the outstanding education I received,” said Anne Garrett, superintendent of Haywood County schools. “The faculty and staff at Western are very deserving of this prestigious award.”
SUTEP also was among finalists from across the nation for last year’s Christa McAuliffe Excellence in Teacher Education Award presented annually by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities..
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