For additional information about any of the news stories listed below, please contact Rodger Boyce in the NCTC Office of Marketing & Public Relations, 1525 W. California St., Gainesville, TX 76240, telephone 940-668-4255. All material Copyright 2003, North Central Texas Community College District.

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NCTC OFFERS TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAM
GAINESVILLE, TEXAS – Teacher education—until recently the exclusive domain of four-year colleges and universities—is now among the options available to students at North Central Texas College.

Maurice Robeson, vice president of instruction, announced that NCTC is now offering an associate of arts in teaching (AAT) degree, with a number of courses leading to the degree scheduled this fall.

The program, being offered by a growing number of public two-year colleges statewide to help ease the teacher shortage, consists of lower-division courses intended for transfer to baccalaureate programs that lead to initial Texas teacher certification.

Although the AAT degree was designed for transfer purposes, Robeson pointed out, it also meets the No Child Left Behind requirements for paraprofessionals—that is, teacher aides, tutors and others. Substitute teachers can also benefit from the education courses in the AAT curriculum.

“The AAT degree, as defined by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, is designed for transfer to Texas public universities that offer the applicable baccalaureate degrees leading to initial teacher certification,” said Emily Klement, dean of the NCTC Bowie Campus who is serving as coordinator of the new program.

NCTC had already been offering some courses in the AAT curriculum on a pilot basis, but the full degree program is now in place. Initially, it will focus on early childhood through fourth grade (EC–4) and fourth through eighth grade.
Additional tracks, including EC-12 degree options, will be available in the future.

“This new degree program is especially notable in that it gives students field experience beginning with their freshman year,” said Klement. “In the past, that’s something that usually did not happen until the last semester or two preceding graduation from a four-year program.”

By allowing students to go ahead and get field experience much earlier in the program, they have an opportunity to actually get a taste of what it’s like to be a teacher, to find out if teaching is really what they want to do.

“Unfortunately, many students have spent four full years preparing to become a teacher only to discover during ‘student teaching’ in their final semester or two that it’s not really what they expected and not a career they want to pursue.”

The AAT degree covers the traditional core curriculum as well as education courses. Among the courses included in the curriculum are Fundamentals of Math I and II; Introduction to the Teaching Profession; Introduction to Special Populations; Family, School and Community; and Child Growth and Development.

The degree will include a total of 60–66 hours of coursework, depending upon options chosen, with most of those courses (42 or more credit hours) coming from the core curriculum. The degree must include six hours of education classes that integrate a field experience. The remaining 12 credit hours are chosen from a variety of specialized courses that meet degree requirements.

“All these courses are part of the AAT degree plan that was approved by the Coordinating Board last July,” Klement reported. “Again, the intention is to have this degree transfer seamlessly in its entirety to the state’s public universities.”

Prior to implementation of the AAT degree program, universities did not have to accept education course credits from community colleges. Now, many public universities in Texas that offer programs leading to teacher certification have already agreed to accept the entire AAT degree as a block of credits.

“It is the intention of the Coordinating Board that all of them will be accepting block transfer of AAT credits eventually,” she said. “We also expect many private universities will do so as well.”

In addition, articulation agreements are being developed by NCTC with area universities to make the transition even smoother for its AAT graduates. These agreements specify university requirements for certain teacher preparation degrees and confirm that NCTC courses meet those requirements.

“We are especially grateful to Midwestern State and the University of North Texas for their wonderful spirit of cooperation and for their eagerness to accept and accommodate the students coming out of NCTC with this new AAT degree,” Klement said.

Dr. Rey Garcia, executive director of the Texas Association of Community Colleges (TACC) in Austin, called the program “a new pipeline for Texas teachers.”

“This new degree creates a well-defined pathway for tomorrow’s teachers,” Dr. Garcia said. “Coupled with early recruitment, it will help ensure that Texas has a continuing stream of quality teachers entering the classroom.”

For more information on the AAT degree at North Central Texas College, contact Emily Klement at 940-872-4002 or Kevin Davis, chair of the Social Science Department, at 940-498-6243.

 
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