Teacher InitiativeAugusta State University’s College of Education will be putting renewed emphasis on teacher preparation to ensure success at all levels of Georgia’s educational system. The new initiative expects to double the number and diversity of the teachers ASU and the University System prepares by the year 2010.
The goal is to reduce by one-third the number of new public school teachers who leave the profession within their first few years by providing them with increased support. According to data from Georgia’s Professional Standards Commission, 15 percent of new teachers hired in Georgia leave after their first year, 26 percent leave after three years, and 35 percent leave after five years.
With projected public school enrollment increases and no change in the teacher attrition rate, Georgia will need approximately 14,500 new teachers by 2010. Reducing the teacher attrition rate by one-third will drop this number to about 11,600 teachers. The state’s Professional Standards Commission has indicated that 69 percent of the new teachers hired by Georgia public schools in 2003 were needed because of attrition.
“There is no question that K-12 schools in Georgia–public and private alike–are in need of high quality teachers, and that need is growing every year,” says Dr. Thomas E. Deering, dean of the ASU College of Education. “The Board of Regents’ initiative can go a long way to increasing the number and quality of professionally educated teachers across the state. While this program presents significant challenges for the university system, it also provides us with an opportunity to better serve the K-12 students throughout the state.”
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