UH-Clear Lake honored for excellence in teacher education

Recognized for its leadership and innovation in teacher education, University of Houston-Clear Lake has been named the winner of the 2009 Christa McAuliffe Award for Excellence in Teacher Education by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

UH-Clear Lake is the sole recipient of this year’s award, which recognizes innovative teacher education programs that document the success of their graduates and their impact on the students they teach. AASCU will use UH-Clear Lake’s practices as an example for other teacher education programs nationwide.

Specifically, UH-Clear Lake has been honored for the collaboration between its School of Education and local public schools, for its Professional Development Laboratory School, and for its measurement of its teacher candidates’ effectiveness on children’s learning.

 “The University of Houston-Clear Lake is pleased and honored to receive this national recognition from AASCU for the quality and impact of our teacher preparation program on both teachers and the students they teach,” said UH-Clear Lake President William A. Staples. “Our dedicated faculty and staff, working in partnership with our collaborating P-12 professional development schools, are committed to learner-centered teaching and learning for all.  We deeply appreciate receiving the Christa McAuliffe Award, which will further our dedication to the professional development of the teachers who will positively impact their students and our communities.”

The hallmark of UH-Clear Lake’s education program is a two-semester internship program, which sends approximately 100 UH-Clear Lake students into 35 local schools to learn every aspect of the teaching profession. The partnering schools also provide a mentor teacher and a public school supervisor for each UH-Clear Lake student interning on campus. As the intern adopts more teaching responsibilities, the mentor teacher and public school supervisor collaborate with the student’s UH-Clear Lake supervisor to evaluate the intern’s progress.

The award also recognized UH-Clear Lake for its Professional Development Laboratory School, created in 2002 in partnership with Clear Creek Independent School District. Located at McWhirter Elementary School in Webster, the PDLS is run by UH-Clear Lake education faculty on site, where they can provide instructional leadership, conduct research and engage in professional development. Some of UH-Clear Lake’s education courses are even taught at the PDLS, and many of its teacher candidates intern at the school. Since the PDLS was established, test scores at McWhirter Elementary have improved dramatically and earned the school Recognized status by the Texas Education Agency.

Most notably, the award also recognized UH-Clear Lake for its documented success of its teacher candidates positively impacting the students they teach. In addition to the increased test scores at its PDLS, the university also has shown increased student performance in other public school classrooms led by UH-Clear Lake graduates. In fact, the university was able to compare the test scores of students taught by a UH-Clear Lake graduate with those taught in the same grade and school by a teacher who did not attend UH-Clear Lake. Although the comparison is limited, it showed the UH-Clear Lake teacher had a significant edge in improving student learning over the other teacher.

The Christa McAuliffe Award, named in honor of the teacher who died in the 1986 Challenger disaster, was first presented in the 1980s. McAuliffe was a graduate of Framingham State College in Massachusetts and Bowie State University in Maryland, both members of the AASCU, a leadership association of 430 public colleges and universities.

“It is especially meaningful to UH-Clear Lake that we received the Christa McAuliffe Award because of the award’s namesake,” said Dennis Spuck, UH-Clear Lake’s School of Education dean. “With NASA’s Johnson Space Center being just next door, both our campus and Clear Creek ISD teaches many students from NASA families. We are proud to be honored in Christa McAuliffe’s name.”

UH-Clear Lake will receive the award during the AASCU annual meeting to be held Nov. 22 – 24 in San Antonio, Texas.