Teacher Education Will Be Improved Through Million Dollar Grant

Continuing Education and the Education Services Center of California State University, Chico were recently awarded a three-year, $998,946 California Postsecondary Education Commission grant to improve the quality of K–12 teacher education in the region.

In partnership with the Tehama County Office of Education and working through the Northeastern California Teacher Education Collaborative (NECTEC), the grant project will support the creation of a regional professional development program. The program will help county offices of education meet newly mandated requirements for beginning teachers.

The new California Commission on Teacher Credentialing standards now require beginning teachers to continue their education to meet areas of competency in academic content, technology, equity, teaching English learners, creating healthy learning environments and teaching special populations.

To accomplish this training and outreach throughout the 12-county region, a primary goal of NECTEC will be to create an interactive Web portal that offers resources and five educational modules addressing the new induction standards.

The program will target more than 4,000 teachers in the region and will provide program feedback for CSU, Chico and Simpson College pre-service programs.

"From district to district, there is a wide range of induction activities. NECTEC will improve on current work, develop new learning materials, make them easy to access and align them with an assessment program. The result will improve beginning teacher support and assist them during this crucial time,” notes Terry Janicki, CSU, Chico Education Services.

The NECTEC project partners include Butte County Office of Education; Tehama County Office of Education; Sutter County Superintendent of Schools Office; Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment programs of Butte County, the North State and Tri-County; CSU, Chico Education Services Center; Education Testing Service; CSU, Chico Center for Regional and Continuing Education; and Simpson College in Redding.

CONTACT: Kathleen McPartland, 530-898-4260; Joe Picard, 530-898-6105