Schools eye federal grant to ease teacher shortage

Wednesday, July 14, 1999 | 11:23 a.m.

The Clark County School District's need for almost 2,000 new teachers a year could be reduced by 200, at least for the next five years, if a $10 million federal grant comes through.

UNLV President Carol Harter told members of the Regent's Initiative for Teacher Education Task Force Tuesday that UNLV has survived the first round of cuts and is one of 80 institutions around the nation in line for Title 2 teacher preparation grants through the U.S. Department of Education.

As partners in an initiative to increase the number of teachers in Clark County, the Community College of Southern Nevada and the Clark County School District would share in the grant.

However, only 20 grants will be awarded. A decision will be made in October.

Harter said UNLV would receive $2 million each year for five years. She noted that it takes $1 million to educate 100 teachers over a period of four-to-five years.

"That would give us an additional 200 teachers above what we believe we can produce ourselves (without the grant)," she said.

A desperation plea by Superintendent Brian Cramm two years ago for a concerted effort among the education institutions in Las Vegas Valley to educate more K-12 teachers apparently has had a dramatic impact.

"We're making remarkable progress," Harter said.

This academic year the university graduated 612 newly qualified teachers. Next year, without the grant, it will graduate an estimated 800. With the grant it would graduate 1,000.

"This summer we had 272 student teachers," Harter said. "In 1994 we only had 230 for the entire year."

Robert Silverman, senior vice president of academic affairs at the community college, said there is similar success at the two-year college. The college has 536 students in its program to prepare students to major in teaching when they transfer to UNLV.

"That's up from 82 two years ago," he said. "We have spent quite a bit of time on recruitment. This year we will spend more time on retention."

Silverman said in addition to working closely with UNLV, CCSN also is developing partnerships with a number of local private colleges, including Regis University, University of Phoenix, Nova and Sierra Nevada College at Lake Tahoe.

He noted that the number of students attending the private schools is small, and their cost is high, but it is another option the college is using to relieve the chronic teacher shortage.

Silverman said 280 people are participating in a program in which they are employed by the Clark County School District in support positions, such as bus drivers, while going to college part-time to become teachers.

Regent Tom Kirkpatrick said the increase in the number of students working toward their teaching credentials was commendable, but support personnel are carrying the brunt of the increased work load.

"I question if we can continue to increase the productivity without additional support staff," Kirkpatrick said. "You've been increasing the number of teachers on the back of the existing staff."

Harter agreed and placed the blame on the Legislature for failing to include additional funding for support personnel.

"We got zero support from the Legislature for support staff," she said.