Beginning in the early 1990s, increased requirements for certification meant additional course work for teachers and administrators in human relations, school safety issues, and other topics for educators. Often, workshops and classes held to fulfill these new requirements are given during the day, and teachers must find substitutes to take over their classrooms. The districts were unable to fill substitute slots for 337 days. Frequently, workshops were cancelled when districts couldn't find substitutes. The substitutes are education majors in their junior or senior year, and they must meet all requirements for substitute teaching, says Superintendent Daniel J. Hoesing.
Participants attend a five-day professional development seminar.
The college students take classes at Wayne State on alternate days, freeing them to substitute teach the rest of the week. The substitute teachers who come out of Wayne State videotape all the lessons and take the tapes back to college, both for peer review and for weekly sessions with mentor teachers from the district, Hoesing says. The program has resulted in an additional 55 substitute teachers available during the 2000-2001 school year. The substitutes can get certification to teach in all 13 northeast Nebraska districts, while usual substitute certifications are good for only one district. Hoesing hopes some of the substitutes might want to work in the district after they graduate.