School-Based Teacher Education "en la Frontera": Preparing Special Education Teachers on the Arizona-Mexico Border.

Overview & Synopsis

Northern Arizona University (NAU) and Nogales Unified School District established a school-university partnership in 1998 to prepare special education teachers to work in the rural Mexican border area of southern Santa Cruz County, Arizona. All 25 students in the program's first cohort were working adults from the local area, bilingual and already employed as teacher assistants or serving as volunteer teacher interns. The shortage of qualified elementary and special education teachers in the area was one factor leading to federal grant funding. The nontraditional program integrates individual courses into a 15-hour block of coursework per semester. Courses are taught in late afternoons by NAU faculty at a Nogales school and are enriched by resource specialists and guest speakers. A required supervised internship in an inclusive elementary classroom or a special education setting provides a valuable experiential component. Training sessions hosted by NAU faculty for mentors in the internship component foster a close working relationship among the parties. Although the program provides many opportunities for research, the demands of such a comprehensive program preclude efforts beyond the on-going evaluation. Because of the dedication of NAU facility and the continuing need for bilingual, special education teachers in the region, there is a positive outlook for institutionalization of the program. Steps in the program's implementation plan are listed. (TD)