UNCW Receives 2006 Christa McAuliffe Award for Excellence in Teacher Education, Only N.C. University to Be Honored
11/20/2006 2:21:02 PM
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WILMINGTON, N.C. - University of North Carolina Wilmington today received the 2006 Christa McAuliffe Award for Excellence in Teacher Education at the annual meeting of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) in West Palm Beach, Fla. Accepting on behalf of UNCW was Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo.
UNCW is the only university in North Carolina to receive this award. With Northwest Missouri State University, UNCW is one of only two public universities in the nation to be honored for leadership and innovation in teacher education. The award recognizes excellence in teacher education programs and advances teacher education by identifying promising practices and critical issues related to measuring the impact of programs on teacher candidate knowledge and the impact of these teachers on pupil learning.
In announcing the awards, AASCU President Constantine W. (Deno) Curris said, "Many of our teacher education programs are doing outstanding jobs. We want to recognize the best among those programs."
UNCW is being recognized for its Learning-Centered Cognitive Coaching Model which has been used to train more than 1,100 pre-kindergarten through 12th grade teachers in more than 100 partner schools. The strength of this model is that the teacher can give attention to the learning of every child in the classroom, not just the one in the middle.
"This award recognizes the innovative nature of UNCW's Watson School of Education, which knows that the ultimate goal of teacher education is to positively affect learning outcomes for children," said Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo in accepting the award.
"Our faculty members are engaged with public schools on a daily basis, working in partnership with teachers and administrators. They understand the realities and challenges of the classroom, and they are tailoring our teacher education programs to meet the needs of public school teachers and their students. Most importantly, we have been able to measure and demonstrate that our approach to educating teachers is actually working," she said.
"By verifying and demonstrating the impact of teacher preparation on student learning, we believe we have a national model that can positively impact the education of public school children across the country," said DePaolo.
"This award verifies that the Watson School of Education, its programs and its faculty are on the cutting edge of teacher preparation and assessment," said Dr. Cathy Barlow, dean of the Watson School. "We are focused on educating the highest quality public school teachers and administrators to meet the needs of children in North Carolina and the nation."
George L. Mehaffy, AASCU's vice president for Academic Leadership and Change, and whose division oversees the award process, said, "The Christa McAuliffe Award challenges teacher education programs to demonstrate the effectiveness of their programs, an incredibly difficult task. Yet these two award winners have made striking progress in demonstrating the impact of their program on graduates and the impact of those graduates on K-12 students.
"Through this award, these nationally-selected programs offer innovative leadership in the continuing redesign and improvement of teacher education," he said. "The proposals we received demonstrate that AASCU institutions are committed to placing highly trained and fully qualified teachers in America's classrooms."
AASCU's 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 Bowie State University (Md.), an AASCU member. In 2001 the AASCU Board of Directors authorized a change in focus for the award-an emphasis on honoring programs that could document the success of their graduates and their impact on the pupils that they teach.
AASCU institutions prepare more than 50 percent of all new teachers in the United States. Curris noted, "AASCU members are working to increase both the quantity and quality of teachers for America's classrooms."
A comprehensive university offering programs at the baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral levels, UNCW maintains an intimate learning environment for undergraduates, integrating teaching and mentoring with research and service. Undergraduate students are afforded opportunities to learn through collaborative research and scholarly activities with world-class faculty at a level that rivals exclusive research institutions of similar size. Instructional programs are organized into a college of arts and sciences and three professional schools (business, education, and nursing). For the ninth consecutive year, UNCW ranked among the top 10 public master's universities in the South in U.S.News & World Report. UNCW's fall 2006 enrollment is more than 10,550 undergraduates and 879 graduate students.
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Members of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) work to extend higher education to all citizens, including those who have been traditionally underrepresented on college campuses. By Delivering America's Promise, these institutions fulfill the expectations of a public university by working for the public good through education and engagement, thereby improving the lives of people in their community, their region and their state. The American Association of State Colleges and Universities represents more than 400 public colleges, universities and systems of higher education throughout the United States and its territories.
AASCU Media Contact: Heather Berg, Media Relations and Editorial Services Manager, 202.478.4665
UNCW Media Contact: Mimi Cunningham, Executive Director of Community Relations, 910.962.3171
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