High-Demand Teachers Trained
Students in the 2007 cohort include (left to right) Jeff Owens, Jordan Webb, Anna Heyer, Catherine Bartlett, Joe Boehm and William Golden. (Photo courtesy of Patty Stowers)
Joe Boehm teaches chemistry and physics to his Flowing Well High School freshman class. (Photo courtesy of Patty Stowers)
Catherine Bartlett developed a program that teaches students about insects. (Photo courtesy of Patty Stowers)
Formerly called Teach for Tucson, the accelerated master's degree program has just added English and social studies disciplines to its repertoire.
When concerns about the need for more trained educators in math, science, history and Spanish became more pronounced, The University of Arizona responded by introducing an accelerated master’s degree program for people who had not originally planned on becoming teachers. First called Teach for Tucson, that program is now expanding.
The program has been renamed Teach Arizona, the College of Education’s program that will launch its new group in May with two new offerings, social science and English. Based on a cohort model, students admitted attend classes and graduate together.
March 17 is the deadline to apply.
Now on its eighth cohort, the program is also dropping its 24-unit requirement for core required courses. That requirement had been adopted a number of years ago in order to earn the No Child Left Behind Act’s “highly qualified teacher” designation.
The new changes should help the UA college attract more future teachers in a broader array of subject areas, said Patty Stowers, a UA clinical assistant professor of teaching and teacher education.
“When the program started it was designed to prepare teachers in the highest-needs content areas of math, science and Spanish,” Stowers said about the program, which goes beyond the average semester-long student-teaching requirement by placing students in a yearlong student-teaching internship.
“The schools still desperately need those teachers, but they frankly need quality teachers in all content areas,” said Stowers, who co-directs the program with Barry Roth.
Jobs opening for educators in all levels are expected to grow at a fast rate over the next several years, with particularly high needs in science, math and bilingual education, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And the states with the highest demand? Nevada, Texas, Georgia – and Arizona.
Between 2006 and 2016, the agency expects the employment of school teachers will grow by 12 percent and that nearly 480,000 additional positions will be created for teachers during that time.
In the UA’s program, students get a solid foundation in both theoretical and practical teaching models, taking courses about testing, learning and behavioral disabilities, English immersion, scientific and mathematically based methods, and literacy among students of color. Students also complete a student teaching internship, spending a full summer and an entire academic year on their respective campuses. In the beginning, students spend the bulk of their time observing, then they move into team-teaching before taking a more active role in the classroom during the latter part of the academic year.
While school is in session, Teach Arizona students spend the morning at their host schools, then meet at Flowing Wells High School during the afternoon hours to attend their UA classes. “This allows us to integrate teaching theory with actual teaching practice,” Stowers said. “Plus, the UA courses are taught primarily by professors who have had extensive experience as middle or high school teachers in the public schools.”
She said the students are better served by this model.
“They get to be there the whole year,” she added, “and get to know the school and understand the culture of the class, so we find that it is a much smoother transition because of that.”
The program’s graduates have gone on to teach in Massachusetts, Illinois, Wisconsin, New York and internationally in Korea and London – though a large number of students have remained in Southern Arizona to teach at local primary and post-secondary schools.
Stowers said an interesting phenomenon occurred with the last group of 24 students: Flowing Wells School District hired about a half dozen from the graduating group. “It was unprecedented,” Stowers said. “I think it’s turned out to be great because it’s hard enough to be a first-year teacher to begin with.”
The 2007 group has managed to build a reliable support network, said Anna Heyer, who is now teaching science at Flowing Wells High School.
Heyer studied in North Carolina, earning a biology degree with minors in business and sociology, but didn’t intend to become a biology teacher. When she began looking for work – particularly in pharmaceutical sales – she discovered that the experiences she had promoting science to young children while in college signaled her truth path.
Heyer, whose room is next door to fellow cohort member William Golden, said the training wasn’t too stressful, though the first-year teaching has been. The friendships she and others from the 2007 cohort have proved beneficial, she said.
“It’s so emotional your first year of teaching,” Heyer said. “But it was definitely very good preparation and it’s good to know that everyone is in the same place and have the same frustration. That’s a really huge support network.”
Joe Boehm said he especially appreciated the preparation work.
“The program was a real decider for me,” said Boehm, who had just returned from spending two years teaching English in Japan. He had also begun to run a construction company, but found he was more interested in teaching.
“The program really helped me, and gave me a good amount of confidence. That came from spending so much time in the classroom,” said Boehm, who is now teaching chemistry and physics.
The fact that it's an accelerated program also helped, he said.
“I’m older and had a profession already. So, I know how to work,” Boehm said. “For me, being able to work twice as hard in half the time was an amazing benefit. I didn’t realize how beneficial it would be.”
One of Boehm’s former classmates, Catherine Bartlett, saw her father work through the program and graduate in 2004.
“I had seen him go through the program personally and was encouraged by his positive experience,” said Bartlett who is now at Flowing Wells High School teaching biology and Earth science.
“Teaching is one of, if not the most, challenging jobs a person can have,” Bartlett said, referring to the 10 to 12 hours first-year teachers typically spent in the classroom, plus the extra hours they spend working on weekends.
“Programs like Teach Arizona admit individuals who already have a strong interest and background knowledge, then spend a year intimately developing their teaching skills. We need more programs like this across the country, not just in Arizona – one of the lowest-ranked states for education – in order to improve the nature of teaching in the United States.”
et cetera
- Extra Info |
Teach Arizona, formely Teach for Tucson, is a fast-track, master’s-level program that prepares those who have already earned a bachelor's degree to teach. Students earn a master's degree and also qualify to sit for the Arizona Educator Proficiency Assessments. Upon passing, students can then teach middle school or high school students.
The application deadline for the next cohort, which begins taking classes in May, is March 17. To be considered for admission, applicants must have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited four-year institution with at least a 3.0 grade point average. Applicants must also have a desire to teach math, science, English, Spanish, social studies or history in a middle school or a high school.
The UA's College of Education collaborates with seven Tucson area school districts, who participate in reviewing applications.
To learn more, or to apply online, visit the College of Education's Web site.