I put on the brand new dress I had bought especially for my first day as an intern at Ascarate Elementary. I arrived at school on time and after going through the formalities of introductions, I was kindly escorted to my assigned classroom. As I walked down the hall, I could hear, smell, and feel learning going on. For 20 of those years, students preparing to become teachers enrolled in classes for seven semesters and did practice teaching in a school during the final semester. We have become more clinical and field-based, working closely with our colleagues at local schools.
Teachers are now prepared more like doctors and nurses, and less like philosophers and historians.
Our teacher candidates spend more time in the classroom, and they are there earlier in their college careers. In 1992, UTEP was invited to join the National Network for Educational Renewal, led by John Goodlad. College faculty held meetings with public school teachers and administrators to examine teacher preparation. The group recommended that the preparation of new teachers should shift to a clinical model by the year 2001. The College's mission for the remainder of the decade was charted.