Athens, Ga. – Like the University System of Georgia as a whole, the University of Georgia has seen an increase in the number of and diversity of teachers it has prepared over the last four years.
A progress report released today during the University System of Georgia Board of Regents meeting showed the system’s production of new teachers has increased 44 percent over the past five years.
UGA’s College of Education, the state’s largest producer of new teachers and one of the nation’s leaders, also saw its production of new educators increase 5.3 percent from 543 to 572 since 2004.
The diversity of those UGA teacher graduates also has increased 6 percent over the past four years. Eleven percent of UGA’s initial teacher education graduates were minorities in 2007.
UGA graduates in teacher education and other school-related fields such educational administration, educational leadership, school library media, school counseling, school psychology and speech language pathology have a 98 percent pass rate on the GACE/PRAXIS licensure exam.
The College of Education also has added alternative routes to teacher certification over the past few years in many of its master’s programs that lead to initial certification—some even online in special education and workforce education. The college also offers endorsement programs in ESOL, reading, gifted and creative education, and educational leadership through online programs as well as on campus.
The report issued today is the first in a series of annual reports on the status of teacher preparation by the USG institutions. For more information on the report, visit: http://www.usg.edu/news/2007/111407.phtml
