January 8, 2004

Greetings!

As you are aware, the School of Education at Arkansas Tech University has aligned the teacher preparation programs in Early Childhood, Middle Childhood and Secondary Education to the PATHWISE/Praxis III. It is our belief that this will strengthen the quality of our graduates and better prepare teacher candidates to smoothly transition to mentoring programs developed for novice teachers as well as to meet changing requirements for teacher licensure.

An important addition, then, to the preparation of teacher candidates and their support in placement in field experience is a commitment to PATHWISE-trained mentors. We are encouraging all who work with teacher candidates, in any capacity and at any point in preparation, to become knowledgeable about PATHWISE/Praxis III. To that end, we are offering a two-day PATHWISE Training on Thursday and Friday, February 5-6, 2003. We would like to invite anyone who has not attended before or those who would like to refresh their skills. We can accommodate 30 participants, first come, first serve.

We hope that you will join us in this effort to strengthen the preparation of teacher candidates. I will need a list of those who will attend as soon as possible so that I can finalize arrangements for lunches. Thank you for the commitment and support that you have continued to provide to Arkansas Tech’s teacher education programs.

Sincerely,

Gwen Morgan

Director of Teacher Education Student Services

501-968-0684; Fax # 501-964-0508

gwen.morgan@mail.atu.edu

Encl