Juan Yanez, majoring in Secondary Science, is a student intern in Lisa Kahn's class at Wichita South High School
Grantee Name: Wichita State University
Project Type: Pre-Baccalaureate and Residency
Project Name: Wichita Teacher Quality Partnership
Project Director: Sharon Iorio, Ph.D (316)978-3301
Partner Districts/LEAs: Wichita Public Schools
Other Partners: Kansas State Dept. of Education; Butler County Community College; Hutchinson Community College; Cowley Community College; Rainbows United; The Opportunity Project
Create a tighter theory to practice in extensive field-based learning experiences for future teachers who will learn to enhance the learning of urban students in a Kansas partnership between the Wichita Public Schools and Wichita State University College of Education.
• Focus on Literacy
• Data-driven Instruction
• Technology Integration
• English as a Second Language
Research shows what we all know—the single most important factor in our children’s education is the quality of the classroom teacher. That’s what the Wichita Teacher Quality Partnership is about—building a great future for our children in the new world of the 21st century through the highest quality teacher education.
Cindy Opat, an Early Childhood Unified Residency student at WSU, receives experience at Wichita Horace Mann Dual Language Magnet.
Our mission is to provide a diverse cadre of highly qualified, effective teachers for Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade students in urban schools. How are we doing this? Through transforming the way we recruit, prepare, launch and develop our teachers throughout their professional careers. Our network involves hundreds of extraordinarily committed educators who form a pipeline that stretches from early childhood learning centers; to elementary, middle and secondary schools; to community colleges; to Wichita State University and beyond.
It’s been five years of hard work, a surprising amount of growth and unexpectedly positive results. In the pages to follow, you’ll find the history of our partnership, its growth and current work and what evaluation of our program reveals. When you see what’s been accomplished so far, we hope you’ll believe with us in the importance of strong teaching and the power of education to enhance the lives of individuals and change the world for the better.
This transformational initiative will prepare diverse, highly qualified teachers for urban school settings via a team-based professional development school (PDS) model coordinated in 26 urban schools.
Professional Development Schools Partners are committed to:
• Supporting staff and teacher education candidates
• Embracing teacher education candidates as educators
• Participating in school professional development
• Providing rich classroom teaching experiences
During the 2010-2011 school yea,r over 120 high school students in 8 Wichita High Schools are exploring teaching as a career and 43 high school students are taking concurrent credit with WSU to jump start the potential of becoming a teacher.
Elana Nightingale, a student intern at Wichita Heights High School, is majoring in Secondary English Language Arts.
Great things are happening in this unique Wichita partnership. Interns share advice to those who are planning to Intern and license as a teacher
*This award was made possible through the U.S. Department of Education (84.336B and 84.405A) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Teacher Quality Partnership program statute is contained in Title II of the Higher Education Act, as amended on August 14, 2008, by the Higher Education Opportunity Act (Public Law 110-315) (HEA).