Education students lead state in number of teacher interns
Education students at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater continue to lead the state in winning highly prized teacher internship positions.
According to Tom Ganser, director of the Office of Field Experiences at UW-Whitewater’s College of Education, 30 colleges and universities in Wisconsin and Upper Michigan participating in the Wisconsin Improvement Program enlist between 80 and 100 teacher interns a year and UW-Whitewater students make up 25 percent of those who are chosen.
“In the last school year, [the program] had 99 interns and 25 of them came from UW-Whitewater,” Ganser said. “This year, [the program] had 84 interns and 21 of them were UW-Whitewater students.”
A teacher intern meets the same licensing requirements as a student teacher. The internships are competitive, however, and carry with them a $4,500 stipend, plus a $500 professional development stipend for the intern and the participating cooperating teachers.
“Generally speaking, the intern is entrusted with more responsibility than that given a student teacher,” Ganser said. “They can be used by school districts to improve their student/teacher ratio, and also to free up professional teachers for some other duties in the school. So, there’s a benefit to both students and to the schools.”
The participating colleges and universities approve the internship applicants, but don’t place the students. “The schools interview the applicants and choose among them – so it’s a pretty big honor to have so many of our students chosen,” Ganser said.
He said UW-Whitewater’s strong showing suggests both the quality of the students in its College of Education and the reputation of interns chosen in previous years.
The College of Education, which enrolls about 2,200 students each year, produces the largest number of teachers of any of the state’s 33 colleges and universities.
“UW-Whitewater has a long tradition of providing strong intern candidates to the Wisconsin Improvement Program,” said Mark Schwingle, director of the program.
July 7, 2009
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