November 14, 2001

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 meet changing requirements for teacher licensure and to smoothly transition to the mentoring programs being developed for novice teachers.

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, December 6-7, 2001. Please make your faculty aware of this opportunity. We would like to invite anyone who has not attended before or those who would like to refresh their skills.

We hope that you will join us in this effort to strengthen the preparation of teacher candidates. We think this training will, also, provide good information for sharpening our own teaching skills. 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 teacher education.

Sincerely,

Gwen Morgan

Director of Teacher Education Student Services

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

gwen.morgan@mail.atu.edu

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