ESU teaching graduates featured on national web site
Emporia State University
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Two Emporia State University graduates are featured on the Web site of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education(NCATE).
ESU graduates Sara Turner and Matthew Lafko provided testimonials about ESU’s nationally-recognized teacher preparation program and how it helped them become successful classroom teachers.
“I am really fortunate,” said Turner, a middle school math teacher at the Garland school district in Texas. “With the shortage of teachers here, out of 18 new teachers, I am the only one with a degree in education. ESU really prepares you for situations like these, where the alternative plans do not. While the teachers from alternative plans] talked about the terrible day they had, I talked about how wonderful my classes are.”
Lafko, the assistant principal at Northwest Elementary School in Lexington, N.C., said that he drew on his training from ESU’s school leadership program every day.
“However,” he added, “the most outstanding feature of the program at ESU was the faculty and staff willingness and ability to see me as a true adult distant learner.”
The teacher education program at ESU was selected as one of four model teacher preparation programs in the nation by Art Levine, former President of Columbia University's Teachers College and professor of the education college. Over 92 % of graduates from the ESU Teachers’ College remain in the profession after five years. Nationally, 30 percent to 50 percent leave the profession before completing three years in the classroom.
To view the finished testimonials on the homepage of NCATE's website, visit www.ncate.org. NCATE is the profession’s mechanism to help establish high quality teacher preparation. Through the process of professional accreditation of schools, colleges and departments of education, NCATE works to make a difference in the quality of teaching and teacher preparation today, tomorrow, and for the next century.