Recently, I was asked to give a keynote address during the fall convocation at my University for 3000 new students and their parents. My address, though prepared for the general audience, had particular importance for first generation college students and their parents. I tried in the most explicit ways possible to draw a clear correspondence between attending a reputable 4-year institution like Eastern Michigan University and access to certain forms of economic, human, social, and cultural capital which will have far-reaching impacts on their personal lives and the well-being of their community.

As dean of one of the largest colleges of education, EMU’s teacher preparation programs provide unique opportunities for benchmarking and forecasting trends in America’s classrooms, the lifeblood for change in the educational attainments for the next generation. The public school teachers, administrators, and counselors, our community’s greatest source of human capital, that we produce today will have a major impact on the state’s ability to produce a competitive and diverse workforce for the global marketplace and global citizens of the future.

I am keenly concerned about the equitable placement of highly qualified teachers, regardless of their race, class or gender, especially those who share economic, social and cultural histories and trajectories with the preK-12 students they educate. If school matters, access to highly qualified teachers matters more. The distribution of capital or resources in home and school settings affects the types of educational outcomes and the quality of lifelong opportunities that individuals are able to enjoy. For example, as the largest preparer of highly qualified teachers for the State of Michigan, the EMU analysis of this precious form of capital, highly qualified educators, provides powerful insights into the needs for more highly qualified teachers, administrators and counselors to meet the challenges presented by the demands of the national educational agenda as delineated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and its focus on academic accountability, annual yearly progress for all schools, and reducing the achievement gap among students across racial groups.

At EMU, we were able to place, for example, 1792 certified teachers throughout the state of Michigan between 2003 and 2005. In this inaugural issue of eFocus on Student Learning, we are attempting to showcase the fine work of our faculty and staff in their efforts to prepare the highest qualified educators for students at promise in Michigan and beyond.

Vernon C. Polite, Ph.D.
Dean
College of Education