SUNY Launches Statewide Teacher Education Network (S-TEN)

Albany – State University of New York Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher, along with faculty and administrators from throughout SUNY, today launched the system’s Statewide Teacher Education Network (S-TEN) at a national teacher education summit in Albany, where faculty leaders in teacher and school leader education shared best practices now underway at SUNY campuses.

By Fall 2014, S-TEN will enable SUNY to establish a network of institutions with the shared purpose of renewing and improving the preparation of teachers and educational leaders throughout New York, engaging SUNY faculty across the state who prepare future teachers and educational leaders in high quality professional development and research. 

“S-TEN will be a broadly inclusive learning community for teacher educators the likes of which New York has never before seen,” said Chancellor Zimpher. “Teaching is an evolving profession and the education of New York’s future teachers is a top priority for SUNY. S-TEN will help us stay at the forefront of developing teacher education initiatives and ultimately provide New York’s schoolchildren with teachers and schools leaders of the highest quality.”

“S-TEN is an unprecedented statewide effort led by SUNY in partnership with the state Education Department and P-12 educators across New York to ensure that we are delivering the best possible crop of teachers and school leaders for the next generation,” said SUNY Senior Vice Chancellor for Community Colleges and the Education Pipeline Johanna Duncan-Poitier.

This year, SUNY was awarded $3.5 million in Race to the Top funds by the New York State Education Department to develop and implement a comprehensive teacher and school leader education initiative in collaboration with SUNY faculty to advance the future of teacher and school leader preparation in order to meet the needs of New York State schools.

By drawing on the best and brightest faculty and administrative leaders from throughout SUNY, and gathering expertise from external partners, SUNY will collaboratively develop a powerful new approach to the preparation of teachers by addressing four critical areas:

·         Common Core Standards;

·         Performance assessments, including certification examinations and performance evaluations;

·         Data-driven instruction; and

·         Clinically-rich teacher and leader preparation.

Through a series of faculty development and research opportunities, S-TEN will enable SUNY to lead campus faculty as they engage with their P-12 partners in education to implement clinically-rich teacher and leader preparation strategies within the four areas, both before and after certification.

Since the design phase and beginning this fall, campus-based SUNY teams have worked in coordination with campus presidents, chief academic officers, deans, and faculty across the schools of education and the colleges of arts and sciences to create campus-based and regional plans of action for the preparation of future teachers and school leaders. Next, their work will be coupled with opportunities to participate in communities of practice, a rigorous action research agenda, and the development of regional centers of pedagogy-like structures, where SUNY faculty can interact and engage in leading transformative change.

At today’s summit, which was held during American Education Week, Chancellor Zimpher provided a keynote address, followed by featured speakers Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford University’s Charles E. Docummun professor of education; Sharon Robinson, president of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education; and Merryl H. Tisch, chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents; John B. King, commissioner of education and president of the University of the State of New York; Johanna Duncan-Poitier, SUNY Senior Vice Chancellor for the Education Pipeline and Community Colleges; and Christine Givner, SUNY Fredonia dean and professor, and chair of the S-TEN Design Team.

"The SUNY teacher and leader preparation network convening represents a powerful demonstration of the SUNY teacher education community's commitment to our ongoing work to improve the preparation of educators and to ensure effective teachers and leaders for P-12 schools," said Givner.

About the State University of New York

The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive university system in the United States, educating approximately 468,000 students in more than 7,500 degree and certificate programs on 64 campuses with nearly 3 million alumni around the globe. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunity, visit www.suny.edu.