Your path: Marylhurst Revives Teaching Program
Marylhurst Revives Teaching Program
Excerpt from an article by Cliff Newell in The West Linn Tidings, March 27, 2008.
Of all the changes Marylhurst University made in transforming into an adult education institution, the toughest may have been dropping its teaching program in 1974.
Now that centerpiece program is back, as an innovative program that is ready to compete with other college education programs – by better preparing teachers for what has become a new world for education.
Better prepared teachers, of course, means better prepared students, and Education Department Chair Tom Ruhl believes the program he has developed at Marylhurst will do that. Key aspects of the plan include:
-- Longer preparation. The Marylhurst teaching program is scheduled for 18 months, not the usual one year.
-- More time in the classroom. Marylhurst students are placed in the classroom right from the start.
-- Mentoring. "That is another unique feature we offer," Ruhl said. "There is a lack of mentoring for Oregon teachers. The teacher dropout rate is 35 to 40 percent before the end of their first year. That's because they don't get the mentoring they need. Marylhurst University is committed to helping them succeed."
The first new class of Marylhurst University teachers will be turned out in the spring of 2009.
While the real results won’t come until that first crop of graduates is out and working, the Marylhurst program is already being vetted by a group of 25 persons, including veteran teachers, new teachers, principals, district office administrators, and representatives from teacher preparatory programs. This was one of many ways the program benefited from being new.
"We asked ourselves, 'If we could create the best program we could, what would it look like?'" Ruhl said.