Urban teachers get boost MTEC helps them refine their skills

By Anne Egan-Waukau
WEAC Media Relations Consultant

Priscilla Nokovic is proof-positive that a blooming urban teacher education program in Milwaukee is well on its way toward ensuring Milwaukee Public Schools continue to have top-notch teachers.

“I have never been so balanced in my profession as a teacher, and I credit that to Milwaukee Teacher Education Center,” Nokovic said. “I value it deeply.”

MTEC – an innovative, independent, non-profit education center – was founded in 1995 by teachers, teacher educators, parents and community leaders in an attempt to get and retain qualified teachers for Milwaukee.

In 1997, MPS hired 600 new teachers, MTEC Executive Director Carol A. Koffarnus said, adding that many will leave before three years because they were not prepared to teach in an urban setting.

“Our graduates will be able to teach, using thematic units and other behaviors that will help culturally diverse students meet their life challenges,” Koffarnus said.

“Our focus is to educate and train successful teachers of the MPS system,” she said. “Next year, MPS will have a need for 900 new teachers. We’ll prep about 60.”

The program offers a pre-service track for college graduates in any field and an in-service track for experienced Milwaukee teachers. Graduates receive an MTEC Urban Education K-12 Certificate from Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction, as well as credits toward a master’s degree.

The course work and classroom training are intense and packed into a short period of time, Koffarnus said.

“You have to be committed. If you think this is a rubber stamp program, then it’s not for you,” she said.

“I think this is a way to make systematic changes in an urban teacher. We feel successful teachers warrant successful students,” she said. “We want these teachers to be successful so they’ll stay. It’s a good, smart return on your investment.”

Koffarnus credits the partnerships involved with MTEC’s development and success: “It’s the right partnership for a systematic change in public education.”

The center’s founding partners are: Milwaukee Public Schools, the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Education, and the business community through the Greater Milwaukee Committee and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.

MTEC will graduate its first group of in-service participants – a total of 34 – on May 7. This group is made up of experienced teachers who wanted to renew and refresh their skills. In addition to the DPI licensing and credits towards a master’s degree, the group will have satisfied six hours of DPI license renewal credits.

Nokovic, a music specialist at A.E. Burdick Elementary, is proud to be one of them.

“It’s a comfortable, reflective organizational place to be in, and it helps you to gather your thoughts,” she said.

One of the requirements of the program is to write a journal explaining how and why a participant made academic, personal and professional choices.

“I did the journal and realized wow, I’m doing this in my classroom. It gives you a chance to validate yourself,” she said, adding the exercise is very time-consuming and thought-provoking.

Participants were paired with outstanding MPS teachers released to serve as faculty mentors. Four more mentors will eventually be added to the current list, which includes Barbara Moran, Mary Ellen Ruzga, Robin Duncan and Sharon Zagorski.

“I spent 27 years in the classroom,” Moran said. “I’m at a point where I know my craft and I want to start a new crop of teachers that can take off when I leave.”

Her main lesson?

“There is a deep desire to learn among urban kids that outsiders don’t think exists. They are just as excited to learn and get what they can get as any one else.”

“I wanted a challenge, and I wanted to see a change, and I wanted to be a part of that change,” Ruzga said, explaining why she applied as a teaching mentor for program.

“We are advocates of children. We are here to make things better for the children. What better way than to work with a teacher and have that teacher work with 30 children?” she said.

In fact, she is Nokovic’s coach.

“I love coming here,” Ruzga said. “She is great and we learn from each other.”

MTEC staff recently interviewed 137 applicants for the upcoming pre-service phase of the program. The group received calls from all over the state and country – and even on from Jerusalem. Sixty will be selected to begin training this summer. The next round of interviews will be in February.

Nokovic is so impressed by the program that she plans to take it one step further.

“I want to start a mini-MTEC here at my school. There are things we’ve mastered in our lives and in a school setting we are so busy we just don’t have time to share it.

“I think as educators there is so much we can share.”

Background on MTEC

• The Milwaukee Teacher Education Center is an innovative, independent, non-profit teacher education center.
• Teachers, teacher educators, parents and community leaders founded MTEC in 1995, and MTEC opened for business in 1997.
• One of the founding partners of MTEC is the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association.
• MTEC’s goals are:
  • Prepare and retain new teachers from diverse backgrounds to be successful teachers in MPS.
  • Help experienced MPS teachers renew and refresh their skills.
  • Ensure that teachers gain the knowledge, skills and experience they need to continually implement exemplary practices that support the success of MPS students.
  • Provide an effective system for teachers’ professional growth and development.
• MTEC’s program has five distinctive elements:
  • Teachers are trained in teams.
  • They learn skills working as teachers in their classrooms.
  • They integrate curriculum.
  • They are coached by outstanding MPS teachers who serve as MTEC faculty.
  • Their success rests on student achievement.

Posted May 5, 1998