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Smith and Northampton Public Schools Extend PartnershipTwo recent grants totaling $35,000 will enable Smith College and the Northampton Public Schools to expand an ongoing partnership that benefits Smith students who are preparing for careers in teaching. The funds, which come through two federal sources, the Dwight D. Eisenhower professional development program and the Goals 2000 program, are aimed at supporting innovative efforts to strengthen pre-service teacher education in Massachusetts schools. The Northampton Public Schools will use the funds to allow release time for experienced teachers to mentor beginning and "preservice," or young people preparing for teaching careers, in the local school system. According to Jeffrey Korostoff, Northampton's associate superintendent for instruction, as part of the partnership, faculty members in the Smith department of education and child study will help the local school system refine the teacher-training model already in use in Northampton "in a way that serves to strengthen the professional [teaching] experience for Smith students." The Goals 2000/Eisenhower funds "offer us an opportunity to extend the partnership with Smith that we have already established and to focus it on the training of pre-service teachers," says Korostoff, Connections between Smith and the city public schools have existed for some time in the form of practice teaching done by Smith students at the Smith-Northampton Summer School and, during the school year, in the elementary, middle and high schools. In addition, a Smith student serves as administrative intern in the school department each year. Also, through a Five-College grant from the National Science Foundation, five teachers from the Northampton public schools will take a course titled "Information Technology and Learning" at Smith next semester. The primary focus of the grant, in which the other four institutions in the Valley are participating as well, is to encourage more science students to pursue teaching careers. In another connection with the public schools, Smith has donated ten IBM PS/2 386 computers for use at Northampton High School and in the elementary schools to augment implementation of the school system's five-year technology plan. According to Robert Hanna, technology supervisor for the Northampton schools, "this donation continues the valuable partnership that we have between the Northampton Public Schools and Smith." |
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