The College of Education and Allied Professions (CEAP) at Western Carolina University has long recognized that effective support for beginning teachers must be provided in order to improve retention rates and teacher quality. Western understands that beginning teachers want and need a variety of support––emotional, procedural, technical, and instructional––and that no one person or unit can provide all of these supports.
In 2005, Western’s Board of Trustees established the Center for the Support of Beginning Teachers (CSBT). Housed in CEAP, the Center is designed to address identified needs of Western North Carolina beginning teachers and build upon established partnerships, programs, and past grant-funded initiatives by consolidating and formalizing new teacher support.
The Center provides resources and professional development activities tailored to teachers in WNC. Data are also collected examining the effects of mentoring and induction programs on new teacher retention. The Center and its school partners seek external funding in the form of grants to further support its activities.
Mission
The mission of the Center for the Support of Beginning Teachers is to address the need for an adequate supply of highly qualified teachers by supporting the professional development of beginning teachers and their transition to the classroom.
Strategic Goals
Strategic Goal 1 – Engagement (UNC-Tomorrow 4.3.3.1 and Stewards of Place) CSBT offers opportunities, support services and resources guided by Western Carolina University’s UNC-Tomorrow’s Initiative (4.3.3.1): “provide professional development to address 21st Century Standards, curriculum, and instruction with a focus on leadership in a variety of delivery modes (online, distance, and face-to-face)” to reach beginning teachers, mentors, and administrators in the region.
The Center for the Support of Beginning Teachers is committed to Stewards of Place and employs “direct two-way interaction” with our public school partners. CSBT sponsored programs are based on 21st Century Standards adopted by the N.C. State School Board. The Center, Beginning Teacher Coordinators, the School University Teacher Education Partnership (SUTEP), and other centers housed in CEAP collaboratively plan activities for beginning teachers, mentors, and administrators. Faculty members and students from CEAP and the Colleges of Arts and Science and Fine and Performing Arts also participate in program “development, exchange, and application of knowledge.”
The work of CSBT and its partners is “place related, interactive, mutually beneficial, and integrated,” with CSBT “occupying the role of learner as well as teacher.” WNC public schools look to the Center as a resource, supporting rural and small city systems as they struggle to retain new teachers in the classroom. The systems are so pleased with the service that they contribute financial support.
Strategic Goal 2 – Research (UNC-Tomorrow 4.3.3.1, the Boyer Model of Scholarship, Quality Enhancement Plan) The Boyer Model of Scholarship provides research opportunities in the scholarship of application for the Director of the Center for the Support of Beginning Teachers to collaborate with Western Carolina University faculty members and students.
Center scholarly activity is focused on using evaluation data to conduct research determining the effects of induction and alternative entry programs on new teacher retention and development. WNC beginning teachers, mentors, and administrators are surveyed online annually. CEAP faculty and students collaborate with the CSBT Director to fulfill this strategic goal.
Western's QEP, Synthesis: A Pathway to Intentional Learning at WCU, is implemented through two applied research projects involving students in PSY 622: Academic Settings and Interventions and EDRS 800: Advanced Research Methods. For more information on these projects, visit http://www.wcu.edu/9742.asp.
Strategic Goal 3 – Secure External Funding (UNC-Tomorrow 4.7.3.1, Stewards of Place, the Boyer Model of Scholarship) CSBT collaborates with WNC public school partners to seek and secure grant funding. This process is mutually beneficial in that it “expands the learning and discovery functions” of WCU while enhancing the schools’ capacity to address and resolve the teacher turnover problem. Grant funding also provides applied research opportunities for university faculty members “to address critical policy issues…that affect the region and the State of North Carolina.”
View the complete 2008-2009 CSBT Strategic Plan Review (PDF).
For more information, contact Janice Holt, Director.