Letters of support for the project came from school districts in New Mexico and Colorado, as well as the departments of education in both states. The four-year grant, which officially begins in August, will pay for full tuition, books, computers, printers and Internet access for 44 teachers from southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. Participants will still need to take some summer classes on the ASC campus, which also will be covered by the grant. The shortage of fully certified teachers is well documented in the region, but is most critical in the areas of special education, bilingual education and English as a second language. Both the New Mexico and Colorado departments of education issue more emergency licenses in special education than in any other field.
Special education is also a federally designated critical teacher shortage area.
Colorado Department of Education studies find those shortages are even more critical outside the state s urban and suburban centers, especially among low-income, rural minority populations. Rural areas with the greatest need for special education are often the hardest places to gather enough people for more traditional graduate programs, he said. Baldwin also noted that, while 70 percent of all students in special education speak a primary language other than English, only 10 percent of current special education teachers are bilingual. Adams State is charged with the special mission of training teachers for rural Colorado and nearby northern New Mexico, as well as providing higher educational opportunities for minority and other under-served people in the region. There were even fewer with the cultural background to help them connect with a large population of traditionally under-served students, including Hispanic Americans, Native Americans and recent immigrants.