FARIBAULT — Faribault School District students will soon be scouted not only for athletics, but also for their potential as teachers.
The district is one of seven districts in the region forging a partnership with Minnesota State University, Mankato, in an effort to strengthen teacher recruiting practices.
The Bush Foundation is investing more than $40 million in 14 universities, including $6.3 million to MSU, to change how colleges and universities recruit, prepare, place and support new teachers.
Michael Miller, dean of MSU’s College of Education, said the approach isn’t meant to slight recent graduates or longtime teachers, but said it’s an effort to provide better education in an evolving environment.
“The teachers we have had have been fabulous,” he said. “But, as you know, the world continues to get more complex.”
Miller said issues of poverty and language barriers have created more challenges for teachers.
Superintendent Bob Stepaniak said in the Faribault district, where diversity is rising and there are more English language students, preparing teachers more could help in developing all students.
“There is a lot more pressure than there used to be to show evidence that the kids are learning at a pretty high rate,” he said.
Stepaniak said there will likely be issues along the way.
He said there may be some difficulty finding students who are in high school or middle school and are ready to devote themselves to education, or won’t change their mind later on, even after entering college.
“I think there are a lot of, if not most of your high school students, are still sort of thinking about what they would like to do for their careers,” he said. “I think to identify someone that early is risky.”
However, he said those who work out could more than makeup for those who don’t.
The program is more than just fast-tracking students to the education field, Miller said.
Once students enter the collegiate level, Miller said students will spend more time in the K-12 classrooms, rather than the collegiate classrooms, working with teams of master teachers and faculty.
“We have a strong buy-in from school partners, faculty and administration and state officials,” Miller said. “This will alter all of our traditional and alternative programs.
“It is an investment in teacher quality and retention, focusing on ongoing development and support, and instructional teams that include teacher candidates and college faculty.”
Currently, student teachers shadow teachers for a semester.
With this new initiative, Miller said student teachers would spend two years in classrooms and gain college credit.
“Once they’re in (the program), we want to involve them in real schools,” Miller said.
Those students would be fully ingrained into a school, and learn how to independently teach, rather than shadow for most of a semester and take over for a week or two.
This will allow for teachers and student teachers to work closer together and provide better education for the students in the classrooms, as well as better prepare the student teachers, Miller said.
“It’s a much more powerful way for our future teachers to learn how to teach,” he said. “We’re going to guarantee they’re good teachers.”
Following graduation, Miller said support systems will be in place and follow grads for up to five years after and provide professional development.
Few details about what will happen in Faribault are known, Stepaniak said, but he expects good things to come.
“I think the program is another step forward to try to help teachers as quickly as they can right when they get into the profession,” he said. “The goal is to get well-qualified young teachers into the profession.”
Miller agreed.
“I think there’s an opportunity for us to do something very interesting and remarkable for students’ learning and the support of teaching,” Miller said.
The Bush Foundation asked the institutions to use three strategies to promote and support teacher effectiveness:
“These are big goals,” said Bush Foundation President Hutchinson in a news release. “They’re challenging. And we know we can’t achieve them alone.”
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