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OPSU School of Education faces test |
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Friday, 06 June 2008 |
By SHAWN YORKS
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The Oklahoma Panhandle State University School of Education has placed hundreds of its graduates in teaching positions across the country. And come Nov. 15, the school will learn just how good of a program it has.
The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) will pay a 5-day visit to Goodwell to see if OPSU has done "what we said we have done," said OPSU Dean of Education Dr. Wayne Stewart.
"NCATE is an organization that deals with teachers and makes sure we meet certain standards," Stewart said. "They bring a board of examiners to campus who will be looking at the program and interviewing students, teachers, teacher candidates and faculty, and visit some people in the public schools to make sure we do what we said we have done."
OPSU goes through this process every five years. By passing this time around, the school will go through the process every seven years.
"When they visited in 2003, we passed with flying colors," Stewart said. "And we have continued to produce good, quality teachers and still have quality teachers.
"I feel confident we have a good teacher education program."
OPSU graduates 30 to 50 student teachers each year, and they begin their teaching careers at schools all over the United States.
"We can safely say that over 50 percent of teachers in our service area — Oklahoma, north Texas, southwest Kansas and even Colorado and New Mexico — have come from OPSU. There is a large majority. It's amazing when we go out to places how many OPSU graduates there are."
And the majority of teachers who are here, have been here a long time or have grown up in this area.
"We prepare them to teach everywhere," Stewart said.
NCATE is a national organization that has accredited about 600 colleges of education.
"That puts a stamp of quality on the graduates," Stewart said. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 09 June 2008 )
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