New Paltz first SUNY to participate in growing teacher recruitment program

NEW PALTZ — The School of Education at the State University of New York at New Paltz is the first SUNY education program to become a part of the Today’s Students, Tomorrow’s Teachers (TSTT) career development program designed to shape economically challenged and culturally diverse students into future teachers and leaders.

As a member, the college will begin the program by sponsoring one TSTT student each of the next two years. Each student will receive a $6,500 annual college tuition scholarship for four years and the college will assign a faculty mentor and an admissions counselor who will provide guidance to the TSTT student – ensuring that they are prepared for a career in the teaching profession.

Robert Michael, dean of the School of Education, said the program’s goals of increasing the number of minorities becoming teachers and offering support to national and local efforts that recruit such talented students into the teaching profession fit right in with the vision of the School of Education.

“It’s important to have a diverse student body and we immediately thought we could, and should, be involved with the program,” he said.

The organization serves 177 high school students and 180 college students who come from heavily diverse, populated school districts located in Westchester, Rockland and Ulster counties and the Greater Rochester Region in New York, and Fairfield County in Connecticut. Seventy percent of the students are African-Americans and 30 percent are Hispanics and other ethnic groups; and 75 percent of the students are the first generation to attend college.

The students are required to maintain a "B" average and to volunteer as tutors two hours per week during the school year and 20 hours during the summer. The students receive tutor training, SAT preparation training, teacher mentorship, college visitations, college survival workshops and career counseling. The high school student retention rate is 92 percent. Eighteen other colleges and universities provide 50 percent tuition scholarships and the admission rate is 94 percent, and the college graduation rate is nearly 75 percent. Twenty-one TSTT graduates are now teachers – a 100 percent placement rate.

TSTT has received national recognition from the U. S. Department of Education for its successful career partnership model and was cited as "an innovative program that embodies many of the goals and objectives for educational excellence and should serve as a model for other regions in the nation."

For more information about the School of Education visit www.newpaltz.edu/edinfo or www.newpaltz.edu/schoolofed.

The Professional Education Unit and the School of Education at the State University of New York at New Paltz are accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). This accreditation covers initial teacher preparation and advanced preparation level programs.