Educators, education secretary talk teacher training

Shannon Glover teared up as she told a story about how Louisiana Tech University education major Adriane Meggs noticed one of her third grade English Language Arts students at Sallie Humble struggling on a test during the second week of school. Meggs took him out into the hall and read the test to him. He wound up with a B on the test.

Meggs, a college senior, is a clinical resident in the Believe & Prepare yearlong teacher residency. It differs from a traditional teacher training program in that residents spend a year working in a classroom with a mentor. This year, Glover is one of those mentors.

It was the moment she started to think of Meggs as a co-teacher, not as her student teacher.

Glover and Meggs shared their experiences as participants in the Believe & Prepare teacher residency program during a discussion the U.S. Secretary of Education John King facilitated.

Three Louisiana Tech students teach at Sallie Humble as part of the residency program. One Louisiana Tech student is a resident at Neville High School. They participated in the discussion along with their mentors, Louisiana Department of Education staff, Louisiana Tech faculty, Sallie Humble’s principal and Monroe City Schools Superintendent Brent Vidrine.

The panel discussion was part of the education secretary’s annual Back-to-School Bus Tour. The tour left Washington, D.C., on Monday and visited other cities in the south. It will stop in Baton Rouge and New Orleans before heading back to Washington at the end of the week.

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All of the panelists agreed that the investment — of time on the part of residents and teachers, of money on the part of school districts and state and federal government — was worthwhile. The program is funded by local school districts, state and federal government, as well as the residents’ universities.

Monroe City Schools Superintendent Brent Vidrine said that retaining teachers can be a challenge because they start out underprepared.

Teacher turnover is a national problem. School districts retain teachers who are better prepared when they start their careers, King said.

Hannah Dietsch, an assistant at the Louisiana Department of Education, said that the Louisiana Board of Education and state legislature have raised expectations for both teachers and students. She compared training teachers to training doctors, dentists and architects, all of whom go through a residency or apprenticeship as part of their education.

“I do think one of our national challenges is this question of are we willing to invest what it takes to make the profession stronger,” King said. “Too often there’s this conversation where we say, ‘Yes, residencies work. Yes, residencies make a difference for the teacher candidates. Yes, they are a learning and growing opportunity for the mentors. Yes, they’re better for students long term. But, we’re not willing to commit the resources.”

King said he would take the stories the panelists told back to Washington.

Don Schillinger, Dean of Louisiana Tech’s College of Education, said that education students miss out on building a partnership with their mentor teacher when they experience a traditional student teaching, which is a shorter period of time.

Glover said that students miss out, too. She isn’t sure if she would have picked up on her struggling student’s inability to read if it weren’t for Meggs. She might have had too many students with different needs to have noticed. Now, that student is getting extra help with his reading skills.

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