June 26, 2007
Contact: Curt Stewart 801.526.4315
Salt Lake City, Utah – (June 26, 2007) Western Governors University www.wgu.edu/ruraleducators is working to increase the national pool of highly qualified rural teachers, particularly with the nationwide shortage of math and science teachers. WGU is offering $ 7,500 scholarships to qualified individuals in rural areas of Utah. Prospective recipients are those who reside in rural areas who want to become licensed teachers in math or science, or existing teachers who live in rural areas and want to earn a master's degree in math or science education. The scholarships are part of a U.S. Department of Labor grant recently awarded to WGU.
The grant project includes working with the Utah Department of Workforce Services and local rural school districts to identify and prepare potential rural teacher candidates. The grant will allow WGU to provide financial, academic, and clinical support for teacher candidates, including the scholarships for qualified students. The $ 7,500 scholarship will be credited to the recipient's scholarship account in the amount of $ 1,500 per six-month term.
WGU's unique mission is to expand access to higher education through its online competency-based degree programs. Because the degrees are offered via the Internet, they are accessible to those living in rural areas who cannot travel long distances to participate in classes at traditional campuses. The competency-based programs focus on measuring what students know and can do, rather than measuring time or credit hours, and allow working adults that have competencies, for example in math and science, to complete their programs more quickly but without compromising the quality of graduates.
The WGU Teachers College is only four years old, but already has more than 4,600 students, including 1,050 students in math and science teacher education, making WGU one of the largest providers of math and science teacher education in the nation. In addition, the Teachers College has already graduated more than 1,325 teachers, and its graduates have become licensed teachers in nearly every state. The WGU Teachers College is the only online teacher education program to be accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).
WGU President Dr. Robert Mendenhall says, "This initiative is crucial to filling the high-need teacher shortages in rural school districts, including retaining teachers in those communities. The quality of teachers is the single most important variable in the quality of education that we provide our youth."
"The Department of Workforce Services and our employer led State Council system have determined that increasing the Math and Science skills of our youth is crucial to maintain Utah's economic growth and competitiveness in the 21st century," says Stephen Maas, Director of Workforce Development and Information. "This partnership between the US Department of Labor, Western Governor's University, and our One-Stop system, developing skilled teachers in these disciplines in rural Utah, is an essential strategy to accomplish this goal."
Some of the grant money will also be used to develop and disseminate a new model for addressing workforce development of rural teachers that can be implemented on a national scale. WGU is partnering with the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) in the implementation and evaluation of this rural teacher initiative.
More information is available at www.wgu.edu/ruraleducators, or call 1-866-225-5948.
About Western Governors University (WGU)
WGU is the only accredited university in the U.S. offering online competency-based degree programs. The private non-profit university was founded and is supported by 19 governors, as well as more than 20 leading corporations and foundations. WGU offers bachelor's and master's degrees in business, information technology, teacher education and healthcare, with students in all 50 states and 10 foreign countries. More information is available at www.wgu.edu.