Spring Break
The Institute for Urban Education
Part three: The School of Education
Jessie Burche
Issue date: 1/28/08 Section: News
Some may be surprised by one of the missions of the School of Education.
"One of our overarching missions is to be an urban-serving School of Education," said Steven LaNasa, associate dean of the School of Education. "It comes from a couple of reasons … the majority of our faculty's teaching experience is in urban settings, an awful lot of our faculty's research agendas are urban students, urban issues, urban contacts. So it makes a lot of sense, especially when you couple that with where we're located - right here in the heart of an urban city."
At least one student in the School of Education is unsure how fair the school's urban-teaching slant is.
"I understand the urban slant because UMKC is urban and located in the city," said Jennifer Scott, senior in the School of Education. "However, it's a commuter school. You get a lot of kids that don't live in the city. I don't think it's fair I don't have a choice. If I really want to go student-teach at Liberty, I should be able to."
Scott, who is majoring in secondary education with an emphasis in biology, is currently student-teaching at Park Hill South.
"It's a fluke," Scott said. "I was supposed to go to Center school district and my cooperating teacher quit."
She said the students have a list of nine school districts to choose from and there are no suburban school district choices.
LaNasa said the nine school districts students can choose to student-teach in are: Kansas City, Kan.; Turner in Kan.; North Kansas City in Mo.; Independence in Mo.; Kansas City, Mo.; Grandview in Mo.; Raytown in Mo.; Hickman Mills in Mo.; and Center in Mo.
LaNasa reported 80 to 85 percent of students work with cooperating teachers in these nine school districts, but occasionally some students are harder to place. For example, it may be difficult to place someone for student-teaching experience who wants to teach art or German.
School districts are becoming increasingly diverse and will continue to diversify in the coming years, LaNasa said.
"One of our overarching missions is to be an urban-serving School of Education," said Steven LaNasa, associate dean of the School of Education. "It comes from a couple of reasons … the majority of our faculty's teaching experience is in urban settings, an awful lot of our faculty's research agendas are urban students, urban issues, urban contacts. So it makes a lot of sense, especially when you couple that with where we're located - right here in the heart of an urban city."
At least one student in the School of Education is unsure how fair the school's urban-teaching slant is.
"I understand the urban slant because UMKC is urban and located in the city," said Jennifer Scott, senior in the School of Education. "However, it's a commuter school. You get a lot of kids that don't live in the city. I don't think it's fair I don't have a choice. If I really want to go student-teach at Liberty, I should be able to."
Scott, who is majoring in secondary education with an emphasis in biology, is currently student-teaching at Park Hill South.
"It's a fluke," Scott said. "I was supposed to go to Center school district and my cooperating teacher quit."
She said the students have a list of nine school districts to choose from and there are no suburban school district choices.
LaNasa said the nine school districts students can choose to student-teach in are: Kansas City, Kan.; Turner in Kan.; North Kansas City in Mo.; Independence in Mo.; Kansas City, Mo.; Grandview in Mo.; Raytown in Mo.; Hickman Mills in Mo.; and Center in Mo.
LaNasa reported 80 to 85 percent of students work with cooperating teachers in these nine school districts, but occasionally some students are harder to place. For example, it may be difficult to place someone for student-teaching experience who wants to teach art or German.
School districts are becoming increasingly diverse and will continue to diversify in the coming years, LaNasa said.
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