eric.ed.gov har udgivet:
The Educational Training Academy (EdTrAc) is an NSF-funded project of Normandale Community College to increase the number, diversity, and skills of students preparing to be elementary and middle school teachers with a specialty in math and science. Overall, this evaluation indicates that the EdTrAc implementation is on track after its first year (2005-2006). Face-to-face interviews with project leaders and advisors as well as the surveying of students indicate the following as the key accomplishments this year: (1) Improving existing courses and adding new ones in education, math, and science; (2) A strong Teachers of Tomorrow (TOT) club that is instrumental in successful implementation of events and activities such as the Future Teachers Conference; and (3) Improvements in student tracking through the implementation of a new software system (SMART database). These accomplishments represent the core of the work done by the EdTrAc project in its first year of implementation and show progress toward accomplishing the goals set at the beginning of the project. Student surveys indicate they believe classes are high quality, which may reflect efforts to improve and develop new courses. By all accounts, the Future Teachers Conference was a success due in large part to the hard work of the Teachers of Tomorrow club. The decision was also made to implement the SMART database, which project leaders indicate has been and will be critical to EdTrAc’s success. Evaluation findings have also shown that some activities have been harder to implement than anticipated. Among these challenges are the following: (1) Outreach to high schools (Ambassadors Program); (2) Scheduling and availability of classes; and (3) Recruiting students to cohorts. (Contains 18 figures and 6 footnotes.) [The following Wilder Research staff contributed to the completion of this report: Mark Anton, Jacqueline Campeau, Marilyn Conrad, Phil Cooper, Louann Graham, Ryan McArdle, and Sheila Romero.]