SUNY Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry President Cornelius B. Murphy Jr. have signed an agreement that enables ESF graduates who fulfill a prescribed curriculum to enter a graduate-level initial teacher certification master’s degree program at Oswego.
Barbara Garii, associate dean of SUNY Oswego’s School of Education, called it a “win-win situation. Both colleges are part of the SUNY system and both are excellent schools.”
Garii said discussions started when Oswego faculty recognized that SUNY ESF has a pool of undergraduates suited to participate in the Oswego Residency Initiative for Teacher Excellence program, a program that will immerse teacher trainees in nine high-need school districts in Oswego County, Syracuse and New York City. SUNY Oswego is in the midst of the pilot program, which is funded by a $1.73 million Race to the Top grant through the state Education Department.
“While the impetus was the collaboration with O-RITE, it now extends to existing adolescence education biology and chemistry and the childhood education science concentration MST programs in curriculum and instruction,” Garii said.