Partners include NMPED Rural Education Bureau, Adams State College & The New Mexico Division of Higher Education
Public television station KNME recently received a $40,000 PBS TeacherLine Local Innovation Funds grant for its TeacherLine Rural Initiative. The goal of the grant is to alert rural teachers to the benefits of TeacherLine and to enroll 100 rural school teachers. The final goal is to have these teachers commit to completing their master’s degrees through Adams State College.
TeacherLine is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. TeacherLine's online courses use the latest internet technology, including streaming video and online discussion boards, to provide teachers with research-based training in the areas of math, science, language arts and technology integration.
Rural schoolteachers, defined as those who teach in school districts with less than 600 students enrolled in grades K-12, are the targets of this Innovation Fund Grant. Many of these teachers do not have easy access to state colleges or universities. As such, New Mexico’s three-tiered licensure system can be perceived as a hardship or even worse, a disincentive for developing a teaching career in rural communities.
Rural schools make-up 12 percent of all students enrolled in public schools in New Mexico. KNME will identify the teachers that will benefit most from the TeacherLine service and conduct 20, site-based workshops promoting and demonstrating the TeacherLine service directly to these teachers.
KNME will be working with three partners on this project.
* KNME will be collaborating with the NMPED Rural Education Bureau – Dr. Jim Holloway and his staff – who will help identify the rural schools that will be the target of this project.
* Adams State College – Provides graduate credit for the national courses provided via TeacherLine.
* The New Mexico Division of Higher Education – Provides advocacy for the KNME TeacherLine Rural Initiative and support of NMPED Rural Education Bureau collaborative efforts.
KNME TeacherLine is a joint collaboration between KNME-TV, the University of New Mexico, the Northern New Mexico Network, Bernalillo Public Schools and PBS TeacherLine. It is endorsed by the New Mexico State Department of Education. Graduate credit is being offered by the University of New Mexico and Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado.
Media Contact: Evy Todd, (505) 277-1218; e-mail: etodd@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at July 18, 2007 12:08 PM