Eastern has made the right moves to increase enrollment in the teacher education program during a state-wide teacher shortage.

The university has made plans to streamline the admission’s process to its teacher education program, a policy it hopes will increase the number of those accepted by about 100 students.

Confusion during an interview between a reporter and Doug Bower, assistant dean of the College of Education and Professional Studies, resulted in this newspaper printing that the university had tightened restrictions and expected enrollment in the teacher education program to decline.

But, the changes the university made are expected to attract and accept more students than the previous system.

The paper was correct in printing the teacher education program’s enrollment has been declining over the past three years as the result of changes made to the program’s structure, which were mandated by the federal government about three years ago.

The Daily Eastern News deeply regrets the error that was made, and I, as news editor, am taking this opportunity and space to try and correct any misconceptions the error may have caused our readers.

Bower said the previous admission standards were a weighted average of a student’s grade point average and TAP test score, with the lowest possible GPA being 2.5. With that system, a student could only get in to the program with a 2.5 GPA if that student had a “really high” TAP test score.

The new admission standards, which go into effect in the fall of 2002, make it so a student needs a 2.65 GPA and a passing score on the Illinois Basic Skills test, which Bower said is about the same academic level as the TAP test – senior year in high school.

So therefore, Bower said the admission system is clearer and less complex, raising hopes that more students will apply and be accepted in the teacher education program next year.

This is good news to Illinois, which is expecting a need of 55,000 new teachers during the next four years. During this academic year alone, the state public school system had to deal with 2,225 unfilled teaching positions.

The College of Education and Professional Studies is making large steps in the battle to fill Illinois’ hunger for teachers.

The program experienced an “all-time high” enrollment in the 1997 academic year with 3,300 students. That number plummeted to 2,600 in 2001 mainly because of the change in requirements at the national level, Bower said.

A change in national accreditation standards in 1998 required the university to allow for more observance and “out-of-classroom” experience for its teacher education students. Bower said since Eastern is not in an area where a lot of facilities like public schools are, the university had to raise its standards to make sure each student would get the kind of education they needed. And the result was a falling enrollment.

So, the teacher education program will likely not reach 3,300 students again, and it shouldn’t try. In the future I hope to be a father and I want my children taught by quality teachers and not students rushed through a system to fill open positions.