Hard Choices for Some of NY's Would-be Teachers
By KEVIN PURDY | Nov. 5, 2001At a meeting last month for prospective graduate elementary education students, a recent Syracuse University graduate asked what he was expected to do with his bachelor's degree in communications, no longer an undergraduate major approved for admission to UB's Graduate School of Education.Told by Kim Truesdell, associate director of the Teacher Education Institute at UB, that he could obtain a degree in an approved field and apply to the school again, he stood to say, "Forget this, I'm leaving the state," and abruptly left the room.For some seniors about to enter UB's Graduate School of Education, new teacher certification requirements, part of an initiative undertaken by New York's Board of Regents, will necessitate another year or more of undergraduate study for an additional degree, a move into school counseling or other non-instructional capacity or relocation to another state.Students without a bachelor's degree in one of seven learning standards areas - arts, history and social sciences, humanities, foreign languages, mathematics, natural sciences and writing - cannot obtain a state teaching license after the new guidelines take effect on Feb.
