Partnerships between Dalton State and our Local School Systems Help Meet Community Need
Co-authored by Sharon Hixon, dean of the School of Education
A robust educator workforce helps ensure our pre-K-12 students are academically successful and prepared to enter college or the professional workforce when they graduate high school. There’s a high demand for pre-K-12 educators in schools across Georgia, and Dalton State College’s School of Education (SoE) has launched several key initiatives with Dalton Public Schools and Whitfield County Schools to meet this need.
Dr. Hixon has been SoE Dean since 2014, having served a year as interim dean. Her leadership has helped the school stay on top of trends in education, ensuring that we continue to prioritize providing a transformational education for our teacher candidates as they enter the workforce. Home to 366 education majors this fall, the SoE offers a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education (B.S.Ed) and offers courses needed for students pursuing a secondary certification in any one of five content areas: biology, chemistry, English, history and mathematics. Students who graduate with a B.S.Ed. and pass the teacher certification exam are qualified to teach pre-K-5. Students who successfully complete courses in one of the five content areas and the requirements for an associated bachelor’s degree are qualified to teach grades 6-12 in their content areas once they pass the certification exams.
In addition to preparing our teacher candidates, the SoE has launched additional efforts to increase the educator talent pool. This includes flexible course schedules for students who may already be working full time, as well as providing additional hands-on learning opportunities for teacher candidates and understanding which subject areas experience ongoing teacher shortages. In Summer 2023 we also launched the para-to-teacher pathway program, which allows current paraprofessionals to complete the requirements for a bachelor’s in education and become certified to teach.
Why is this so important? Paraprofessionals help teachers in their local school classrooms throughout the day, making it nearly impossible to attend traditional college classes that are held during the same time. So, we are working with both the Dalton and Whitfield County schools systems to offer courses at night and in the summer to provide these students with more flexible course schedules. We currently have six students enrolled in the program’s first cohort. We plan to start a second cohort in January with 10 new students. We also hope to expand the program’s reach to other local school systems. This work is funded through GENERATE, a grant with Mercer University’s Tift School of Education through the U.S. Department of Education. The funding helps cover students’ tuition and fees. Additionally, students are provided with laptops they can use while taking their classes throughout the two-year program.
GENERATE also helps support our Roadrunner Reading Clinic each semester, allowing us to partner with Whitfield County Schools to identify elementary-aged children who could benefit from additional reading instruction. As part of the program, 24 children come to campus each semester to work with our literacy professors and receive a “prescription of services” that will help meet their needs. Professors use their knowledge of the Science of Reading to write the prescriptions, which then allow our teacher candidates to guide how they tutor the students. This means these students get extra instruction in reading and experience this assistance on a college campus, increasing the chances that they see themselves as future college students. At the same time, our teacher candidates gain additional hands-on learning experience working with children in literacy development. Children and teacher candidates also receive literacy materials to use in their homes and future classrooms.
Another initiative funded through this grant is our Summer Literacy Camp, which allows our teacher candidates to assess more than 100 elementary students from five Whitfield County schools. They use the assessments to create and implement eight days of lessons to address comprehension, fluency and phonics needs the students may have. Following the eight days of camp, students go home with a collection of books and literacy supplies to continue to practice at home. Teacher candidates also receive books and literacy materials to use in their future classrooms.
Finally, we know all too well that science and mathematics teachers are in short supply across many Georgia communities. As a result, the SoE in partnership with both Dalton and Whitfield County schools received a $1.1 million grant in 2021 through the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Scholarship program. Dalton State students can apply to become Noyce Scholars, who receive training to become more effective secondary mathematics and science teachers. If selected, the grant pays for their tuition and other expenses while also funding additional mentoring. Scholars participate in community activities and complete a two-week externship. We graduated our first two Scholars in May of 2023.
SoE and Dalton State are grateful to join with our local school systems as we work together on meeting a critical need for highly skilled teachers in our local communities and across Georgia. We take pride in making sure our future graduates are prepared to challenge a new generation of students to reach their highest potential, acquire a love for learning and become productive citizens in the 21st century.