Truman MAE students participate in multiple clinical experiences in a variety of school districts. These classroom interactions support schools in their efforts to address student needs through shared collaborative efforts. Stakeholder school districts range in location, from urban to rural, with variances in student demographics and context. Three area partner schools in the Northeast region routinely welcome Truman students, using them to expand their own student opportunities, especially in the populations of English Language Learners and Special Education students. All three of these partner districts (Kirksville, Knox, and Schuyler) have a significant number of students from low socio-economic status, with more than 50% of the students qualifying for free and reduced meals. All three districts also serve more than 14% of the school population with Special Education services. The Kirksville school district has added challenges in attempting to meet the needs of nearly 8% of their student body who require ELL instruction due to the influx of Congolese families to the community in recent years. This district has a larger Congolese student base than any other Northeast district, resulting in acute and distinctive needs. One practical example of how the MAE has assisted this local partner to reduce the educational disparities brought about by the language barrier is the MAE French students and faculty providing gratis translation of school documents, including the Student Handbook.
As is the case in many rural locations, the smaller rural school districts near Truman have limited resources, including personnel. Several of the schools in the NEMO region have moved to a Tuesday-Friday schedule due (in part) to the difficulty in finding substitute teachers. These districts regularly engage Truman MAE students to address substitute teacher shortages, volunteer event staff, tutoring services, and after school supervision needs. Further, the school districts in northeast Missouri consistently struggle to fill teaching positions in many high-need subjects, including math, science, special education, elementary, and foreign languages. The Truman MAE program has had multiple instances where qualified students who are ready to intern have been hired as the teacher-of-record for schools in the surrounding districts. These positions assuage the staff shortages in the area while providing Truman students with valuable teaching experience and different perspectives of serving students with varied needs and limited resources.
Our Advisory Board consists of several members from the NEMO school districts. They communicate directly to us what their needs are, and how the MAE can support them. To offset teacher shortages in rural areas, the Board affirmed our technology goals, indicating that this training for pre-service teachers would be essential to providing scarce services in their districts.
Our MAE film series hosted on campus provides opportunities for students to discuss disparities in education. Faculty members encourage their classes to attend.
In an effort to help our preservice teachers better understand the scope of the observable and measurable education disparities that can be observed in Missouri schools, students enrolled in ED 388 examine publicly available data supplied by DESE through the DESE report cards. Examples of how these data are examined include surveying the number of districts employing teachers unqualified to teach particular content areas. Students in ED 389 are assigned to examine various metrics by district that highlight educational disparities, including high school graduation rates, student performance on state measures, sources of revenue, and other related topics. Most NEMO districts are classified as high need; consequently, our clinical placements allow students to experience these disparities first hand and, as mentioned above, often help to meet these needs.