Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - Since the inception of the state's first normal school in 1866, two words mark the progress of the teacher education program at Platteville: growth and change.

As the University of Wisconsin-Platteville enters the fall 2004 semester, both trends continue in regards to the UWP School of Education. Ten years ago, there were less than 500 students in the program. Now, there are more than 1,200.

"Our biggest challenge in the next 10 years will be managing to keep the high quality of the program while dealing with the growth," said Alison Brooke Bunte, director of the School of Education.

As the fourth full academic term of the new millennium begins, a change in how the state classifies its teacher licenses has prompted a major transformation of the UWP program. Coupled with a new trend that emphasizes outcome-based assessment, the changes resulted in a complete restructuring of UWP education classes and curricula.

"As of August 2004, Wisconsin has new licensure categories in the state. Licensure is no longer by grade levels, it's by age and developmental levels," Bunte said. "We're under a real time of change. We've been completely re-writing curriculum over the last few years."

The new UWP School of Education teachers licensure programs are classified early childhood through middle childhood (birth to age 11), early adolescence (10-14), early adolescence through adolescence (10-21) and birth through adolescence (birth-21). The changes didn't affect students who graduated before the fall 2004 semester, but triggered wholesale class changes for others as new courses were developed and implemented.

"It's been a little bit of an inconvenience, but we pledged to our students we'd get the right courses for them or offer independent studies," Bunte said. "Our goal is to help students make the transition smoothly."

It was important to School of Education instructors that UWP retain its early adolescence program. While the new state classifications didn't call for licensures specific to middle level education, UWP applied for and was granted special consideration. It now has the only licensure program in the state specific to early adolescence. Research indicates that early adolescents, children ages 10-14, require special instruction, Bunte said. UWP has long been heralded for its quality middle level education program.

"It's not high school. It's not elementary. These students are unique and have very unique behaviors. They are best taught by people specifically trained to teach in the middle level," Bunte said.

New standards for teachers entering Wisconsin classrooms is part of a national effort to ensure quality in teaching.

"Education is becoming much more accountable, and that's a good thing," said Wally Iselin, director of clinical experiences. "We're going to learn to become better teachers, become more accountable and therefore increase pupil learning. We have to be sure the pupils we teach are becoming the best they can be."

Assuring a high standard of excellence as it undergoes the transformation, the School of Education was reaccredited in June by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. NCATE officials, joined by a group from the state department of instruction, completed its regular onsite review in April.

"They spent a lot of time looking at the report. They met with international studies, the library staff, took a tour of technology studies, did some observation of classrooms, met with students, met with teachers. They were busy," said UWP faculty member Dale Henze, a retired middle school principal who headed the reaccreditation effort.

The NCATE examiners found that UWP School of Education faculty "model best professional practices in scholarship, service and teaching," according to their report. "They are skilled classroom teachers who continue to demonstrate their expertise in teaching."

Maybe that's why students find the UWP education program so attractive. In the middle-level education program alone, the number of students has doubled in the last year. The early childhood program is the school's largest and fastest growing program with more than 320 students. With teaching tabbed as a target area in the university's tri-state initiative, the School of Education is poised for future growth.

The school's graduate-level programs are also becoming more popular. While the master's in education program is being modified to allow for more practical and hands-on research in the classroom, several new and innovative graduate-level programs have been developed over the last five years.

The cross-categorical special education licensure program is unique in that candidates develop a portfolio of their experiences in special education and a course roster is developed to meet their needs. A master's program developed for prospective school principals was designed by and is taught by UWP faculty and area school administrators. Among those area principals and superintendents involved with the program are: current administrators David Allen, Platteville Middle School; Nancy Hendrickson, Pecatonica Schools; Jeff Jacobson, Platteville High School; and Dave Romstad, Highland Schools; as well as retired administrators Dave Chellevold, Darlington Schools; Dale Henze, Galena Middle School; and Dennis Pratt, Darlington Schools.

"We're extremely appreciative of the administrators in our area, both active and retired, who have invested a great amount of time and commitment," Iselin said.

The online alternative licensure program gives secondary education teachers the opportunity to work at home toward a degree in a schedule that fits their lifestyle. It is designed for teachers with temporary licenses who are working toward their full teachers licenses.

"Because of these programs our graduate school has grown tremendously," Bunte said.

A UWP master's in adult education program is geared toward professionals who don't teach in a public school setting but still have a responsibility in teaching. Class meetings are conducted at a host site in Madison, Milwaukee or Racine, and new technology allows professors to simultaneously beam course proceedings to classrooms in the other cities.

Increased use of technology is becoming more and more popular in education. Bunte said the School of Education is continuing to work toward its goal of enhancing classrooms with technology such as computer systems, display units, software and integrated instruction stations for students. Meanwhile, school administrators would like to switch record-keeping methods over to computer-based systems in order to handle the increased number of students in its programs.

Several other additions are also on the horizon. For example, school officials want to develop a new, state-of-the-art early childhood learning lab. With more and more students, the program has outgrown its current laboratory space, which it shares with math and science learning labs. The new classroom would be outfitted with tables, countertops, sinks and display areas for children's projects, and would serve as an example for future teachers.

As the university moves into the future, there certainly are changes, but at least one thing remains constant: the UWP School of Education strives to serve as a model of what teacher education can be.