KTUU.com | Alaska's news and information source | Program fast-tracks teachers to rural Alaska

Program fast-tracks teachers to rural Alaska

by Leyla Santiago
Sunday, June 14, 2009

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The effort to enlist more teachers for Alaska is moving along quickly, thanks to a new program that is recruiting from around the nation for 2010.

Ten future teachers are already enrolled in summer school to start their training. But these aren't your average student teachers.

When it comes to crunching number for Alaska schools the math is simple. The Department of Education wants to add more school teachers to the payroll in order to subtract from the shortage of teachers.

Enter AKT2, or the Alaska Transition to Teaching program, an alternate route to teacher certification.

"We're trying to recruit folks from mid-career professionals, retired military personnel, para-professionals with bachelor's degrees," said Woody Woodgate, AKT2 program manager.

People like Ben Hicok, who is trading in his days in the courtroom for the classroom.

"I went through my career, my kids are grown up, I've got grandkids, I'm at the point in life where I can make my own choices or different choices about what I want to do and I came across this program and thought now would be a good time to do it," said Hicok.

The program gets real-life experts into the classroom faster.

"They have to do 80 hours of facilitated online course work, but that could be done on the Internet from where ever they are," said Woodgate.

"It's a lot of work, I think we've been getting some valuable information, learning a lot on the fly," said Hicok.

Candidates also have to shadow teachers in Anchorage for three and a half weeks and attend cultural workshops.

The newly certified teachers are then sent to rural Alaska for two years.

"We have folks that are going to Savoonga, Napaskiak, Elim, Golovin, Hooper Bay, Skammon Bay," said Woodgate.

But is this providing enough training to produce qualified teachers?

"Remember, I've already got a degree or two so it's not like they're taking people off the streets necessarily," said Hicok. "We all have to have bachelor's degree, so we've all been to college, we've done that."

Plus, he adds, the training and assistance continues once the new teachers are placed.

"So it's not just a short compressed three and a half or four week cycle, this is a couple of years over which this gets done," said Hicok.

A push that takes away traditional training, but could multiply the number of teachers prepared for rural Alaska.

The program hopes to train 100 teachers in the next five years

It's funded by a five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education. This year the Department of Education awarded more than $6.8 million in 14 grants for transition teaching training programs across the country.

Contact Leyla Santiago at lsantiago@ktuu.com