MEDIA CONTACT: Sherry Thomas
561-297-2328, sthomas@fau.edu
BOCA RATON, FL (September 6, 2006) – U.S. Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings recently announced the awarding of 31 grants totaling $11.8 million under the Transition to Teaching program to help high-need school districts recruit and retain highly qualified mid-career professionals, including qualified paraprofessionals and recent college graduates who have not majored in education, to teach in high-need schools. Florida Atlantic University’s College of Education will receive $1.9 million over five years to help schools in Broward, Palm Beach and Okeechobee counties expand the number of fully certified teachers to teach and serve students by streamlining the route to teacher certification.
The Transition to Teaching program provides five-year grants to state and local education agencies, for-profit and nonprofit organizations, and institutions of higher education collaborating with states or high-need school districts to develop and implement comprehensive methods to train, place and support teacher candidates whom they have recruited into their programs. These programs have to ensure that the new teachers are placed in high-need schools and districts and are supported for at least three years. FAU and five other Florida-based educational agencies, including Palm Beach Community College, received Transition to Teaching grants.
FAU’s program, Pathways to Teaching, will partner with the Broward, Palm Beach and Okeechobee county school districts to serve students in target areas of rural poverty. These districts are home to more than three million Florida residents with about 25 percent foreign born. Although some parts of these counties are affluent, some schools in the counties serve communities where 99 percent of the children are eligible for free or reduced lunch. All three districts anticipate hiring thousands of additional teachers in the coming years. The grant is expected to increase the number of highly qualified teachers who are recruited into teaching from paraprofessionals and non-traditional sources and help them through the Florida teacher certification process and placement in high-need schools. The grant will recruit teachers for high need subjects, with preference for those applicants with content backgrounds in science and mathematics.
“We’re excited that we are addressing the needs of the rural programs that usually get overlooked, as well as the hard to staff schools,” said Dr. Rebecca Harlin, project director for Pathways to Teaching. “By including the paraprofessionals, we are proud that we will be making an impact on their lives and their families’ future.”
The FAU Pathways to Teaching program will expand the number of fully certified teachers. This is in addition to the Palm Beach Community College 2 + 2 program which is a collaborative effort between the community college, FAU and the Palm Beach County School District to help non-teacher trained professionals with bachelor’s degrees transition into teaching careers in Palm Beach County.
For more information on the FAU Pathways to Teaching program, contact the College of Education Department of Teacher Education at 561-297-6588.
- FAU -
Florida Atlantic University opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University serves more than 26,000 undergraduate and graduate students on seven campuses strategically located along 150 miles of Florida’s southeastern coastline. Building on its rich tradition as a teaching university, with a world-class faculty, FAU hosts nine colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts & Letters, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Biomedical Science, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, and the Colleges of Business, Education, Engineering & Computer Science, and Architecture, Urban & Public Affairs.
