Contact: Karie Patton
More than 50 university, community college and public school district officials gather Thursday [April 6] at Mississippi State University to officially launch an $8.5 million project designed to improve teacher education.
The 9 a.m.-noon Teacher Education Summit in the Leo Seal M-Club Center will provide information on the ACHIEVE Mississippi Partnership, a collaboration between Alcorn State University and MSU.
Funded in December by the U.S. Department of Education, the five-year partnership will train 1,800 students preparing to become elementary and secondary school teachers in problem- and studio-based learning techniques that rely heavily on technology.
The MSU College of Veterinary Medicine will provide training in the problem-based teaching methods, while the School of Architecture will focus on studio-based instruction. Both techniques emphasize "learning by doing."
Participating school districts include Amory, Calhoun County, Chickasaw County, Claiborne County, Choctaw County, Clay County, Columbus, Franklin County, Greenwood, Houston, Jackson, Jefferson County, Kemper County, LeFlore County, Leland, Louisville, Lowndes County, Meridian, Natchez, Noxubee County, Oktibbeha County, Philadelphia, Starkville, West Point, Wilkinson County, and Winona.
The Public Education Forum of Mississippi, Oktibbeha County Business and Industry Roundtable and Port Gibson Bank also are partners in the project.
The campus program will include presentations by ASU Vice President for Academic Affairs Malvin A. Williams, MSU President Malcolm Portera and state Higher Education Commissioner Thomas Layzell. They will discuss the program's goals.
Project ACHIEVE director Mary E. Howe, an MSU assistant professor of education, also will speak. Her remarks will provide an overview of the collaborative effort.
Among other topics to be covered during the morning gathering: expectations of superintendents for beginning teachers, nurturing novice teachers, technology in education, scholarships, and diversity.
A luncheon presentation following the program will feature remarks by Tina Scholtes, a first-grade teacher at Starkville's Sudduth Elementary School and Mississippi's 1999 Teacher of the Year.
For more information about the program, telephone Howe at (662) 325-2041 or Dean of Education William H. Graves at (662) 325-3717.