The exemplary practices discussed here are imbedded in newly developed teacher education programs in the College of Education at UNLV. The impetus for these programs has been the significant need for teachers in the Clark County School District (CCSD) located in Las Vegas. As the eighth largest and fastest growing school district in the country, CCSD hired more than 2,000 new teachers for the 1999-2000 school year. In addition to the unprecedented growth faced by CCSD, the school district's minority population has increased to 48% of the total student population and is continuing to increase, as is the number of children who are living in poverty. Accordingly, there is a documented need to recruit, prepare, and retain teachers who can effectively teach in diverse urban contexts.

Among the College programs that have been developed in response to this need are: an Alternative Special Education Licensure Program that provides an alternate route to licensure for CCSD employees with baccalaureate degrees; a Paradise Professional Development School located on the UNLV campus that includes early and continuous interaction between preservice teachers, university faculty and the teachers, staff, principal, and children of Paradise Elementary School; a Mathematics and Physical Science (MAPS) Project designed specifically for individuals with degrees in mathematics or science who are interested in pursuing a teaching credential; a Special Education Cohort Program designed to provide an intensive undergraduate program for teacher assistants or long-term substitute teachers in CCSD leading to a special education resource room license; and an Urban Teaching Partnership (UTP) Program designed for individuals with degrees outside of education and that leads to elementary or secondary teacher licensure. The primary focus of this session will be on the exemplary practices being implemented in the UTP Program.

By way of background, several faculty in the College of Education were awarded a planning initiative grant from the UNLV President to plan and implement the UTP Program to meet local school needs and to serve as a model for teacher education program initiatives at UNLV. It was developed collaboratively with CCSD as an alternative and intensive route to teacher licensure in the state and is a full-time, field-based, post-baccalaureate teacher education program.

Contributing to the UTP Program design were faculty who had worked in developing successful partnerships between universities and school districts in other contexts. These faculty identified key components of successful partnerships from their experience and study of the teacher education literature and included them in UTP. The components include: creative financing; collaboration with school personnel; preparation of mentors in a thoughtful and ongoing way as site-based teacher educators; integration of theory and practice; and professional development related to defining good teaching.

The overall purposes of UTP are to prepare teachers for diverse urban contexts; blend the theory and practice of teaching; and offer experienced teachers professional development opportunities as mentors in the program. The specific goals of UTP were collaboratively determined by representative UNLV faculty and CCSD personnel during a program-planning year supported by the grant from UNLV. The goals are to:

• Offer an innovative way of preparing urban teachers to meet the needs of diverse urban learners

• Provide a quality, intensive, and accelerated teacher preparation program for students who have baccalaureate degrees and have the dispositions to become teachers in diverse, urban settings

• Study and implement state-of-the-art practices in urban teacher education

• Increase the number of high-quality novice urban teachers, including those from underrepresented groups

• Include experienced teachers in the preparation and mentoring of novice teachers as site-based teacher educators

• Link preservice, induction, and renewal experiences

• Strengthen and enrich collaborative efforts between CCSD and UNLV

The UTP Program currently includes a small cohort of 25 elementary and 18 secondary post-baccalaureate interns and is viewed as a model that can provide ideas and information for upcoming changes in the larger teacher education programs in the College. The UTP interns are selected using the Haberman Urban Teacher Selection Interview and are placed full time in one of three partnership sites to complete program courses and intern teaching in one academic year. Each intern is paired with a primary mentor teacher in the school. Mentor teachers are experienced teachers who are charged with guiding interns in learning to teach and are expected to participate in ongoing mentor preparation activities.

The foremost exemplary practice in the UTP Program is the mentor teacher component. Mentor teachers are carefully selected and prepared over time to develop a pedagogy of mentoring based on the work of the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) National Commission on Professional Support and Development for Novice Teachers. Mentor teachers meet at least once weekly with a program coordinator and other mentor teachers to study and reflect upon their own teaching, their intern's progress, and their roles as mentors. Mentors are also involved in program development, assessment, and research activities.

The UTP curricula for both the elementary and secondary components have been developed by drawing on the teacher education research literature, the case-study experiences of those who have developed collaborative field-based programs, and state licensure requirements. From these sources and the tacit knowledge of program developers, curricular strands and processes for instruction emerged. These strands and processes are integrated into all program coursework and experiences. The integrated curricular strands and instructional processes include: assessment; educational foundations; technology; multicultural/diversity/urban issues; reflection and inquiry; and appropriate subject matter instructional strategies. Much of the coursework occurs on the school campuses and mentor teachers are becoming increasingly involved discussions and decisions about course content and assignments.

Challenges have emerged in the UTP Program that are inherent to university/school collaboration (e.g., labor-intensive nature of collaborative work, incompatible reward structures for faculty and mentor teachers, clashes across institutional structures, time to work together). In the UTP Program, we have developed some solutions for addressing these challenges. We are continuing to work toward even better ways of making collaborative efforts viable since the benefits appear to be significant for mentors, interns, and the children they teach.

Institutional Mission and Context

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is one of the nation's astest growing universities, located in the country's fastest growing metropolitan area. UNLV is recognized as a comprehensive teaching and research university. More than 139 undergraduate, master's and doctoral degree programs across 15 colleges are offered to approximately 23,000 students served by a faculty, staff, and administration of approximately 2200. The University increasingly concentrates its resources on programs that are student-centered, demonstrably excellent, and responsive to the needs of the local community. The University promotes research programs and creative activities by students and faculty that respond to the needs of an urban community in a desert environment. UNLV is committed to developing a synergy between professional and liberal studies, between undergraduate education and graduate programs, and between superior teaching and meaningful research. UNLV increasingly is a dynamic resource for, and partner with, the community that it serves.

The College of Education enrolls approximately 2600 undergraduate and graduate students and offers several programs leading to licensure in elementary, secondary, post secondary, physical, health, and special education. With 85 full-time faculty, the College is committed to creating an intellectual environment that promotes quality instruction, significant research, and professional service.

The Clark County School District (CCSD) is the eighth largest school district in the United States and serves a diverse population of students (48% minority) in 29 high schools, 35 middle and junior high schools, and 152 elementary schools. CCSD has the second-largest year-round education program in the country. More than 63,000 students attend 66 year-round elementary and 10 year-round middle schools. The student enrollment expanded from 100,027 in 1988 to 217,000 in 1999, representing an annual growth rate of more than 10%. Over the past three years approximately 5400 new teachers have been hired. Given this trend, CCSD anticipates a continual need for approximately 1800-2000 new teachers each year for the foreseeable future. The College of Education at UNLV currently graduates approximately 600 teacher candidates per year. Clearly, the local school district is facing a difficult teacher shortage even though they actively recruit teachers from approximately 40 other states.

Key Partnerships

Alternative Special Education Licensure Program
Paradise Professional Development School
Mathernatics and Physical Science (MAPS) Project
Special Education Cohort Program

Urban Teaching Partnership (UTP) Program
Key UTP Partnership Representatives:

Sandra J. Odell, Professor, UNLV
Marilyn McKinney, Associate Professor, UNLV
Susan P. Miller, Associate Professor, UNLV
Peggy G. Perkins, Associate Professor, UNLV
Judy Pollak, Assistant Professor, UNLV
George Ann Rice, Assistant Superintendent, CCSD
Karyn Wright, director of Staff Development, CCSD

For further information on these exemplary practices contact:

Dr. Sandra J. Odell, Professor
College of Education
UNLV
4505 Maryland Parkway
Box 453005
Las Vegas, NV 89154
Phone: 702-895-3232
Fax: 702-895-4898
odells@nevada.edu

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