New programs guide educators through new professional standards
Released: October 21, 2004
A dramatically new set of rules awaits winter 2004 graduates of Wisconsin teacher education colleges, as the first class covered under a new state law called PI 34.
Designed to upgrade the way educators get licensed, Wisconsin will require beginning educators to assemble review teams and map out a five-year plan for professional growth.
The new rules will change a lot of other things, too — especially the relationship between educators and university programs. In the past, educators met licensing requirements by taking six credits within their interest areas, but that’s no longer a requirement.
“It’s a completely new paradigm,” said Robin Warden, grant director and UW-Whitewater professor. “Philosophically, there is some excitement about embracing a new model like this. But there is also some trepidation about how school districts and universities will put all the pieces together.”
To that end, Warden is directing a $120,000 teacher quality initiative grant from the UW System that will help both beginning educators and seasoned veterans alike connect with PI34. Warden will be working in partnership with the CESA 2 region, which includes 75 school districts enrolling more than 135,000 students in Dane, Rock, Walworth, Racine and Jefferson counties.
In CESA 2 alone, an estimated 700 new educators will be hired by 2006 and will need to follow new licensing rules.
Through the grant, the College of Education has created training and certification programs for two distinct audiences: one for initial educators and one for current teachers who are interested in serving on professional development teams.
The second group is critical for the licensing system to work, Warden said, since thousands of professionals will be need to be trained statewide to meet demand. Professional development teams consist of peers, administrators and higher education representatives
A 12-credit “Professional Development Planning Graduate Certificate Program” is offered for licensed educators. Completion will allow them to serve as mentors or higher education representatives on professional development teams. As added incentive, these credits also apply toselect master’s degrees, giving educators a jump-start on an advanced degree.
The second part of the grant, beginning in 2005, is a Summer Institute Series designed to prepare initial educators for professional development plans. In the second year, it offers learning communities of faculty in the colleges of letters and sciences and arts and communication who give teachers greater depth in their content areas.
The programs complement each other in that seasoned educators are trained to eventually lead the summer institutes. UW-Whitewater intends to offer the program on campus as well as bring the service to districts in southern Wisconsin that want to in-house training.
A second $20,000 grant from the Department of Public Instruction creates a regional licensure support and renewal center on campus. This will serve all educators who are not part of Wisconsin public schools, such as parochial school teachers, correctional system educators and day care providers.
“I really think we have an innovative way of meeting this reform,” said Warden. “We need to have models that will bring people into master’s programs in ways that allow them to move their teaching careers forward,” Warden said.
For more information about the programs, contact Warden at (262) 472-1680, wardenr@uww.edu.
- Brian Mattmiller,npa@uww.edu
