Discovery September 2000

MSU Receives Grant to Help Train Librarians, School Administrators

Teachers who want to become librarians or school administrators will have an easier time of it because of a new grant received by MSU-Bozeman.

MSU was one of 10 universities across the nation to receive a grant this week through Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnerships (LAAP). U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley announced that he was awarding $10.6 million for 10 new grants that enable adults to learn virtually around-the-clock from wherever they are through innovative use of technology. MSU's portion is $200,000 for the first year or $866,851 over three years.

MSU's project, titled "BATE: Borderless Access to Training and Education," is a certification program for teachers in five western states who want to become librarians or school administrators, said project director Janis Bruwelheide of MSU. It will offer courses mostly over the Internet. The first courses should be online early in 2001.

"We are pretty excited," commented Bruwelheide who came up with the idea for the project. She noted that Montana and other states in the region have critical shortages of certified school library media specialists and school administrators because current educators are retiring and educators in rural areas lack opportunities for advanced training.

MSU is "the lead dog" for BATE, but its partners are the University of South Dakota, Northern State University in South Dakota, the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, netLibrary, Pearson Education and WebCT. Teachers in Alaska and Wyoming will be able to take courses through the program, but those states are not offering courses.

Because of the BATE partnership, teachers in Montana, South Dakota, Nevada, Alaska and Wyoming will have an easier time taking courses in a reasonable sequence of time, Bruwelheide said. If MSU doesn't offer "Young Adult Literature" in a certain year, for example, they may be able to pick it up from South Dakota or Nevada. BATE will also make certification easier for teachers who live in the more remote areas of their states.

"It would increase the smorgasbord of courses we offer," Bruwelheide added.

Boyd Dressler, a former principal and an associate professor in MSU's Department of Education, said BATE offers one strategy for cooperatively addressing the shortage of school administrators. Dressler is working with Bruwelheide and helping coordinate the school administration part of BATE.

Evelyn Boswell is the technical writer for the MSU Office of Research, Creativity and Technology Transfer.