missouri

Next week, ABCTE kicks off a month-long run of information sessions in six states. For the first set of events, we will visit Idaho and Missouri.

These ABCTE information sessions will include a 45 minute to one hour-long introduction to the program and offer an opportunity to have questions answered in-person by members of the ABCTE staff. These events are free and you can register now through the links below.

Idaho and Missouri events, January 11-13, 2011

Our previously mentioned letter to the editor ran in the St. Louis Post Dispatch this past weekend.

People take different steps on the path to teacher certification

The following letter from a Missouri resident appears in today's St. Louis Post Dispatch, addressing an article on ABCTE and comments it contained about our program from a University of Missouri-St.

We have submitted the following letter to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch regarding the article that ran in the paper Friday about ABCTE:

Dear Editor,

Last Friday’s article on ABCTE fails to paint a balanced picture of our teaching certification program’s progress in Missouri over the last two years.

Over the course of two years of doing public relations for ABCTE, I’ve gotten used to the fact that some colleges of education are not necessarily going to like us—some of them see us as competitors and a threat.

We toured Missouri last week to let state leaders know how well we are doing with teacher recruitment. We have been approved there as a route to teacher certification for only 6 months and we have over 900 people enrolled with 450 focused on math and science. This is an amazing success story. Obviously this was very well received in the capital and it is great, as a non-profit, to let people know that we are living up to the expectations set for the ABCTE program.

I first went to Missouri two and a half years ago and knew nothing about the legislative process. I learned the hard way. We didn’t even get our bill out of committee that year. But last Thursday, I was standing next to Governor Matt Blunt as he signed the first bill of this legislative session; a bill to allow ABCTE. This was a hard fought victory to help school districts with their teacher shortages. Once the politics are done, the real work takes over.