Empire State College Receives $2.4 Million State Education Grant for Alternative Teacher Certification Program

Grant Awarded as Part of "No Child Left Behind" Initiative

Empire State College, State University of New York, has been awarded a $2.4 million grant by the U.S. Department of Education to enhance its efforts to recruit and train teachers to work in high-need school districts across New York state. Through its Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) program, which enrolled its first students this fall, Empire State College is giving talented mid-career professionals the opportunity to transition to teaching through an alternative certification route.

The grant, part of the federal government’s No Child Left Behind initiative, will support and enhance the implementation of Empire State College’s M.A.T. program. In the next five years, the program will provide 500 highly qualified teachers for urban school districts across New York, in subject areas where the shortage of qualified teachers is greatest. There is a documented need for teachers in such areas as math, science, foreign languages, English as a Second Language, reading and special education.

"This multi-year federal investment in our partnership with urban school districts will provide direct support for new teachers and experienced mentor teachers in this new graduate program," said Empire State College President Joseph Moore. "Empire State College has centers in most of New York’s cities to serve adult learners and is committed to serving the educational needs of these communities. We deeply appreciate the U.S. Department of Education’s vote of confidence in our new M.A.T. program."

"President Moore and his staff are to be commended for developing this innovative program to meet the needs of career-changing adults who wish to enter teaching, and congratulated for winning this prestigious grant," said SUNY Chancellor Robert L. King. "SUNY’s teacher education programs are the envy of the nation, and this is another example of how the State University is directly addressing the need to recruit teachers to high-need school districts and to train teachers in math, science and other important subjects. We are enormously grateful to the U.S. Department of Education for supporting this initiative."

Project funds will be used to provide tuition support of up to $5,000 to eligible applicants; to support supervising mentor teachers in partner schools, some of whom may pursue National Board Certification; and to enable Empire State College to build an online Urban Teachers "CommunitySpace." The CommunitySpace will be an interactive web site to facilitate communication among teachers, students and community members and to provide resources for mentoring and professional development for teacher candidates. The project may be of particular interest to alternative certification programs across the country that are offering online instruction as a part of their design.

"This funding gives us the opportunity to be part of an important network of teacher educators," said Dawn Rodrigues, the associate dean and director of the M.A.T. program. "The cross-fertilization of ideas that comes from being part of the national conversation on alternative certification is invaluable.

"Our project - the Urban Teachers CommunitySpace - supports online professional development for teachers in our M.A.T. program and promises to have an impact on professional development practices in teacher education nationwide," she said.

Empire State College’s Master of Arts in Teaching program is a collaborative effort between the college and urban school districts, which will work together throughout the three-year program to identify and train candidates to teach at the middle- or high-school levels. Through a combination of seminars, online learning and the college’s highly regarded mentoring program, this initiative will create a new supply of teachers for urban schools where the need is greatest. Because the program is in partnership with selected urban school districts, teacher candidates will have assured positions as entry-level teachers after the first year. Teacher candidates will work with the support of mentor teachers in the schools, an Empire State faculty member at the college, and a cohort both in the content area they will teach and in their geographic area. Teacher candidates retain their income streams for the first year, studying part time, before being placed in a school as an entry-level teacher during the second and third year of the program, while continuing to study part time.

"Our center is pleased to support such an innovative program that matches mature adults in Westchester County who are committed to education, with schools right in their own communities, where the need is greatest," said Dean Robert Trullinger, of the college’s Hudson Valley Center in Hartsdale. "We expect this program to make significant contributions, not only to innovative teacher preparation, but also to teacher retention, a critical need."

The program is administered from the college’s locations in New York City, Old Westbury (Long Island), Hartsdale (Westchester County), Latham (the Capital region), Syracuse, Buffalo and Rochester.

Empire State College was designed to meet the educational needs of adult students. Founded in 1971, the college offers degree programs in the arts and sciences through independent study, online courses and study groups, as well as credit earned through college-level life learning. Empire State College focuses on combining current technology and one-to-one mentoring between professor and student. The college serves more than 17,000 students at 35 locations across New York State and through its Center for Distance Learning. With more than 44,000 alumni, Empire State College is the SUNY solution for working adults.