The University of Wyoming’s plan to improve the College of Education will need $18 million to $20 million in initial funding to overhaul the state’s system of producing teachers. Ray Reutzel, UW’s dean of education, said the overhaul would also require $1 million annually in recurring funds.
UW’s Board of Trustees launched the Education Initiative in 2014. In September, the board planning the College of Education’s future produced a implementation plan.
That plan is the result of years of work, largely funded by a $4.5 million grant from the Daniels Fund.
Reutzel said the biggest adjustment his college needs is to make its students more ready to teach in Wyoming’s classrooms.
A major part of that plan is the get rid of the conventional student teaching system in favor of year-long internships at school districts.
The major goal of the College of Education overhaul is to ensure the students in its programs end up in the classroom.
“What we don’t want to do is to continue to admit students who think they might want to become a teacher,” Reutzel said. “We want students entering to program to know they’re going to be a teacher.”
In the past, the college has failed to ensure its students are sufficiently “classroom ready,” Reutzel said.
As part of his college’s future curriculum, aspiring teachers will work with virtual simulators that put them in difficult teaching situations.
“We can crank up the pain for that with students being non-compliant,” Reutzel said.
Noting that almost half of Wyoming teachers leave the practice within three years of beginning work, Reutzel said the new College of Education system will help avoid that “sink or swim” climate by providing two years of post-graduation support to the new teachers, including providing districts with an on-staff mentor.
Albany County School District No. 1 board members expressed an openness to helping UW pilot the new “internship” program in 2019. School board chair Janice Marshall said Reutzel’s plans are “very impressive.”
“I think it would be great if we could get a pilot here,” Reutzel said. “We need three pilot districts next fall.”
The initiative’s implementation plan calls for the residency pilot program to expand to nine districts in 2021.
“Some elements will come on quicker than others, but this is going to be a rollout over time,” Reutzel said.
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