I noticed that Mrs. Perez had checked out one of the laptop computers the school has in the Parent Center for parents to use at home. She told me she was writing a resume in order to get a new job. She was taught these skills by the parent educator. Now several parents help each other. . . One new component of the teacher preparation program is to learn how to work with parents, particularly low socio-economic and minority parents.
Interns take a course on parent engagement, which requires home visits.
The partner schools have opened Parent Centers designed to offer professional development opportunities for parents and provide them with the skills to volunteer in the classroom and be advocates for the school in the neighborhood. The Parent Centers make computers accessible to parents, who can check out one of 10 laptop computers from several of the partner schools. At UTEP, we are changing public schools and teacher preparation programs at the same time. Students preparing to be elementary and secondary teachers now work in cohorts, are scheduled to take their university classes together, and spend two semesters in the field at Partner Schools under the joint supervision of university faculty and public school teachers who act as clinical faculty. Teacher preparation is field-based .