UNLV's nationally accredited College of Education is developing innovative programs that will enable it to meet new, tougher performance standards adopted this week by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), according to Dean Gene Hall. The college will be up for reaccreditation by NCATE in 2003.

NCATE announced new performance-based standards for teacher preparation at a news conference in Washington, D.C., on May 15. Those standards signal a shift in emphasis by NCATE, which will be looking more at the performance of students and less at the qualifications of professors as the measure of a teacher-education program's quality.

"Performance-based accreditation is based on results -- results that demonstrate that the teacher candidate knows the subject matter and can teach it effectively in a real classroom," according to Arthur E. Wise, NCATE president. "These standards offer a future in which classroom teachers work side by side with university faculty to design courses of study for teacher candidates."

"We welcome these new standards, and we are confident that, when it is time for reaccreditation of our programs, we will meet them," Hall said. "The aim of these standards is to place well-prepared, quality new teachers in classrooms. That is our goal, as well."

UNLV is already working closely with the Clark County School District on innovative, collaborative teacher-education programs, according to Hall. These include the following:

-- The Accelerated Schools Project, designed to improve schooling for children in "at-risk" situations. This project involves 15 schools that serve some 9,000 CCSD students.

-- Alternative Special Education Licensure, which enables CCSD employees, such as classroom aids who do not already have bachelor's degrees, to earn bachelor of science degrees and licensure as special education teachers. There are approximately 60 students enrolled in this program.

-- Each year a new cohort of 25 UNLV students is involved in a special program to prepare teachers for bilingual classrooms.

-- To address the impending shortage of school principals, the UNLV/CCSD Collaborative Principal Program is preparing the next generation of principals who can effectively provide leadership in an increasingly complex, diverse organization. Twenty-five CCSD teachers are enrolled as UNLV students each year in this partnership program.

-- Education at the Paradise Professional Development School, an elementary school located on the UNLV campus. This unique, year-round program provides early and continuous interaction between pre-service teachers and the teachers, staff, principal, and children of Paradise Elementary School. Classes in the four-semester program for UNLV teacher education students are held at Paradise Elementary and the adjacent Bennett Professional Development Building. Currently 25 students are enrolled.

-- The Professional Development Degree in Science and Education, which assists people who already hold bachelor's degrees in science or mathematics and want licenses to teach those subjects in Nevada. Participants earn teaching credentials by completing the 30-credit-hour program. Twenty-six students are enrolled.

-- The Urban Teaching Partnership, which prepares teachers for urban schools. This is a one year intensive professional preparation program for students who already hold bachelor's degrees. Through this program, UNLV's College of Education and CCSD collaborate in the preparation of teachers in a research-based program that is student-centered and responsive to the critical local and national need for classroom teachers. Currently 40 students are participating in this program.

"These programs represent some of our innovative efforts to draw people from a variety of backgrounds to teaching and to prepare them to meet the demanding performance criteria established by NCATE," Hall said. "These programs also provide creative ways of enabling talented, committed people to become teachers."

In the past several years UNLV has significantly increased the overall number of new teacher graduates each year. During the 1993-94 school year the College of Education graduated 315 students. In 1998-99 that figure had grown to 601, and the projection for 1999-00 is 700.

"We are doing everything we can to meet the need for teachers in Clark County classrooms while meeting our responsibility to the community to prepare the best and brightest students to be teachers," Hall said. "And we are doing this with few additional resources."

In fact, since 1992-93 the number of students in College of Education programs has increased by more than 80 percent, while the college's budget has increased by approximately 20 percent. The dollar-per-student ratio has dropped by some 30 percent.

"Over the last decade, the College of Education has dramatically increased its efficiency and is now producing more graduates than ever," Hall said.

The dean said that, given more resources, the college could produce more new teachers. He noted, however, that there is no waiting list of students seeking admission to the college.

"Anyone who meets our entrance requirements will be admitted," Hall said. "If we need to add new course sections to meet the demand, we will add them."