UPDATE: Watson: 75 Cedar Falls, Waterloo Teachers Will Replace Price Lab's Role

Update 10:02 a.m. April 26: Editor's clarification: The 75 to 80 teachers will be current classroom teachers, not new hires.

The hopes to recruit 75 to 80 local teachers by May to replace the role of Malcolm Price Laboratory School in teacher education during the 2012-2013 school year, School of Education Dean Dwight Watson told a committee of the Iowa Board of Regents today.

Watson was addressing the board’s education and student affairs committee during a progress report on closing Price Lab. The school has served as a central part of UNI’s teacher education program and is slated for closure this summer.

An average of 600 UNI education students, usually sophomores and juniors, do their level II placements at Price Lab every year. During that placement, the students receive 25 hours of experience, write a teacher work sample and teach two lessons. Currently, they work with Price Lab teachers one hour a day, every day, for four weeks.

Next year, Watson said the proposal is for education students to move to block scheduling. Students would be in area schools for two-hour blocks on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and three-hour blocks on Tuesday and Thursday for eight weeks.

Watson said the students would be placed primarily in Cedar Falls and Waterloo schools.

He said the transition team is planning meetings with lead teachers in those districts in early May.

“The purpose is so those teachers know exactly what their expectations are,” he said.

Watson also said some UNI teacher education faculty members would be placed in the schools that host UNI students.

UNI President Ben Allen closed the presentation by thanking everyone who worked on the transition plan.

“It has been done diligently, it has been done systematically. It is not easy doing this kind of work,” he said. “I also want to thank our local superintendents for working with us to make sure this is done in a way to not only maintain but enhance our educational experience.

He pointed out that UNI provides more teachers to the state than any other institution.

“We have a history of quality, we have a history of impact,” he said. “These changes were made because we want to maintain that history.”