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ASU Education Initiative Honored

September 18, 2013

Angelo State University’s Teacher Education Department has been honored by the Texas-based Quest for Quality program for its joint initiative with the San Angelo Independent School District (SAISD) that involves ASU students in the local Head Start/Early Head Start program.

The initiative in field-based placements for students enrolled in ASU’s Applied Child Development course was launched during the 2012-13 school year and is led by Dr. Sandra Maxedon, assistant professor of early childhood education.  Quest for Quality cited the ASU program as an Exemplary Example of Field-Based Instructional Practice.  Only five programs in Texas received that designation for the 2013 spring semester.

During the first year of the program, ASU students in Maxedon’s Applied Child Development class participated in classes at SAISD’s Rio Vista Head Start campus.  Changing the previous operational venue of kindergarten through third-grade classrooms to Head Start/Early Head Start put a spotlight on younger children in a structured, research-based setting, Maxedon said.

“While each collaboration partner had slightly different motivations for the innovation, the outcome is an exciting blend of new learning experiences for students, assistant teachers, lead teachers, parents, administrators and university faculty,” Maxedon said.

Because of the success of the ASU initiative, the program has been expanded for the 2013-14 school year to include all three SAISD Head Start/Early Head Start campuses.  The federally funded Head Start/Early Head Start program is for children from infant to age 5 from low income families.

The Quest for Quality program, based in The Woodlands, is designed to highlight exceptional quality in university-based teacher preparation in Texas. The Center for Research, Evaluation and Advancement of Teacher Education (CREATE) and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board collaborate on the program that is funded through a grant from the Sid W. Richardson Foundation to the College for All Texans Foundation. The program, which has 61 member universities, also has honored four ASU graduates as “Exceptional Teacher Candidates” since its inception in 2012.

For more information on the ASU program, call Maxedon at 325-486-6956.  More information on the Quest for Quality program can be found online at www.createtx.org/.