College Connects with Texas

The Houston, Texas, area is teeming with Hawkeyes thanks to a special partnership between The University of Iowa College of Education and the Aldine Independent School District, about 15 miles north of downtown Houston.
        The district selected 32 partner schools nationally to recruit student teachers, but the UI was one of the first on the list. College of Education students, about a half dozen each year, have been student teaching there for 15 years.

“It’s the cornerstone for how we’ve built our other partnerships,” said Jeff McCanna, director of human resources. “Through the UI partnership, we are able to recruit some of the best-trained teacher prep students in the country.”

Will Coghill-Behrends, associate director of the College’s Educational Placement Office, said UI students gain a great deal from their experience in Texas. Student teachers are assigned mentors and attend weekly seminars to deepen their educational experience. The efforts seem to pay off. McCanna estimated that 98 percent of student teachers in the district choose to stay and teach full time.

“They stay because they know they’re making a difference here,” he said.

Christy Landstrum (BA ’07) chose to stay. Now in her second year of teaching fifth-grade English, writing, and social studies, Landstrum said she was pleased to find four other UI College of Education graduates working in her building.

“It’s nice to see a familiar face and know that we have something in common,” she said.

McCanna visits Iowa City a few times each year to recruit student teachers and often brings an Iowa alum now working in Aldine along to help describe the district and the challenges and opportunities student teachers will find.

The Aldine Independent School District is among the highest performing school districts in Texas. It serves more than 61,000 students, making it one of the 12 largest districts in Texas. The student population is diverse. Comprised of approximately 63 percent Hispanic and more than 33 percent African American, most Aldine students come from low-income families. But the district has developed award-winning programs and techniques to help students thrive no matter their background.

Aldine students are taught to plan for a future in education. “They instill the message that college is an option,” Coghill-Behrends said. “Success in Aldine includes what happens after students graduate.”

Now the UI and Aldine are collaborating to deepen their partnership and build on Aldine’s message to its students.

Last fall, the UI began recruiting Aldine students to follow in so many of their student teachers’ footsteps and become Hawkeyes. The students would be supported by scholarships and one-on-one guidance from College of Education staff. 

“It’s a good way for us to give back to Aldine because they’ve given so much to us,” Coghill-Behrends said.

Myers Represent Iowa and the College Olivia Myers is Miss Iowa Olivia Myers looks forward to being a social studies teacher some day. But first, she’ll spend a year as royalty. The Secondary Education major was crowned Miss Iowa June 14 and will compete to be Miss America Jan. 24 on cable network TLC. Myers will take a year off from her studies to travel the state and promote her platform of character education and tolerance. “I want to help young people understand differences, accept their own individuality, and respect each other for who they are,” Myers said. Myers said her Human Relations class at the College helped inspire that message. She even wrote a letter to her instructor, Fran Miller, telling her that she’d made an impact on her as a future teacher and as Miss Iowa. Miller (PhD ’09) said she’s confident Myers will be a great representative of the state and the College as well as a great teacher some day. “Olivia exemplifies what I have come to regard as the very best in students from Iowa,” Miller said. “She is intelligent, reflective, open, eager to learn, and has a solid work ethic. She is also humble, recognizing that there is much about the world and her future students she will need to learn. She cares deeply about helping others learn and grow and discover the world.” Myers plans to return to The University of Iowa when she completes her year as Miss Iowa and plans to student teach in spring 2010.