More than four-thousand beginning teachers and their principals will soon be receiving word from the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education that a survey is on the way – it’s DESE’s second annual survey of Missouri’s beginning teachers.
Gale Hairston, DESE’s Director of Educator Preparation, says these rookie teachers have begun their careers in 495 school districts and it’s important to find out whether these teachers think they were adequately prepared by the colleges from which they graduated.
The survey will be conducted between April 21st and May 9th. In 2007 these voluntary surveys were sent to 4,975 teachers, with 63 percent responding. The surveys were also sent to 3,625 principals, with 50 percent responding. 84 percent of the teachers who responded expressed the belief that their colleges or universities did a good or very good job of preparing teachers to get into the classroom, while the principals thought 80 percent of the colleges and universities did a good or very good job.
Download/Listen: Steve Walsh report (:60 MP3)
