SOUTHEAST SITE OF NATIONAL CONFERENCE

Southeast Missouri State University has been invited to participate in the White House "Teach America: Teacher Preparation for the New American School" conference June 14-16 in Washington, D.C.

A total of 35 institutions nationwide have been invited to participate.

President Bush and U.S. Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander are among the scheduled speakers.

The conference will be hosted by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and its President's Commission on Teacher Education.

Representing Southeast will be Kala Stroup, university president; Leslie Cochran, provost; Lenore Bierbaum, dean of the College of Education; Jesse Snowden, dean of the College of Science and Technology; Neyland Clark, Cape Girardeau Public Schools superintendent; and Jim Limbaugh, president of Boatmen's Bank.

Each participating institution is required to include a K-12 school representative and a business representative on its team.

In addition, key state education officials from each of the participating states have been invited to attend.

"Teach America" will focus on defining the new American school and developing strategies for teacher preparation and retraining programs.

"I am so proud that Southeast is among this elite group of universities with model teacher education programs," Stroup said. "We look forward to participating in this distinguished conference and are anxious to be a part of the process for improving teacher education nationwide."

Other participating Missouri schools include Central Missouri State, Harris-Stowe College and Lincoln University.

The idea for the conference stemmed from a recommendation in a report released last November titled "Teach America: A Presidents' Agenda for Improving Teacher Education." The report was released by AASCU's Presidents' Commission on Teacher Education and is an agenda for college and university presidents to follow for improving teacher education programs on their campuses.

The report calls for the restructuring of teacher preparation programs on state college campuses and is designed to prepare teachers for the model schools called for in the Bush administration's "America 2000" plan.

Southeast and 19 other institutions nationally were praised in the report for their teacher education programs.

AASCU is a leading higher education association, representing more than 375 public institutions and 30 state systems of higher education in the United States, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.