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Keynote speakers were Marilyn Sheerer, Dean of the College of Education at East Carolina University, and Nick Michelli, University Dean for Teacher Education, City University of New York.

PDS teacher Kim Sabo, reports her group's feedback at the conference while Jonathan Cumming, chair of the Biology Department in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and student facilitator Rebecca Skidmore look on,

Provost Gerald Lang, NCTAF observer Marilyn Scannell, Eberly College of Arts and Science associate dean Joan Gorham, and Benedum Collaborative director Van Dempsey listen to a presentation.
Campus-Wide Summit Convened on High Quality Teacher Preparation

Provost Gerald Lang and the College of Human Resources & Education co-sponsored a campus-wide conference on Quality Teacher Preparation October 1st at the Erickson Alumni Center. More than sixty participants attended the day-long meeting, including teachers from WVU's professional development schools, faculty from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, faculty from preparation programs in agriculture, art, health, music, and physical education, and HR&E faculty members.

The conference focused on the quality of teacher preparation at WVU. In his opening comments, Provost Lang characterized the meeting as "the beginning of a campus-wide dialogue about the preparation of tomorrow's teachers."

Marilyn Sheerer, Dean of the College of Education at East Carolina University, reviewed NCTAF's six dimensions of quality teacher preparation and shared examples of East Carolina's initiatives in each area.

Nick Michelli, University Dean for Teacher Education at the City University of New York, emphasized the similarity of the problems facing both rural and urban education, including the poverty and isolation of children and the difficulty in attracting excellent teachers.

Participants spent much of the day discussing ways to integrate arts and sciences and teacher preparation at WVU. Action steps which would lead to the integration that each discussion group had generated were then shared..

"The quality of teachers in Americas schools is a matter of national concern in today's political and policy contexts," said Dean Anne H. Nardi. "At state and national levels strong academic preparation is seen as central to excellence in teacher education. Through West Virginia's partnership with the National Commission on Teaching and Americas Future (NCTAF), we believe that WVU is in a position to make significant contributions to state and national agendas surrounding teacher education."