By STEFANIE HILL

Staff Writer

The College of Education is redesigning its graduate programs to change the way business and industries view the Louisiana area.

Two state panels, the Board of Regents and Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, formed the Blue Ribbon Commission in April 1999 to find ways to improve teacher quality and instruction in Louisiana classrooms.

Under the authority of the Blue Ribbon Commission, Tech's College of Education redesigned its undergraduate programs and is now in the process of redesigning its graduate programs.

Dr. David Gullatt, professor and department head of curriculum, instruction and leadership, is one of the professors working on the redesign of the graduate programs. Gullatt said the reason for the redesign of the programs is to produce better teachers. In return they will produce more education students, because businesses and industries will not move to a state where there is not a educated work force.

"Businesses like [General Motors Corp.], Nissan and Saturn will go to a state and, first thing, ask, 'What kind of education do you have, because we don't want to put a million-dollar plant somewhere and have to spend three years to read and write and do math,'" Gullatt said. "'We want skilled labors that have at least a good high school education.'"

One of the improvements in the redesign is to give education majors more field experience.

"It is not as easy to teach as it was 10 to 15 years ago, because there are more discipline problems in schools, society has changed and working conditions are not as pleasant as they were," Gullatt said.

Chris Medley, a junior psychology major, said he thinks the changes in the programs are a good idea because he thinks he did not receive the proper education at his high school.

"I think standards of education right now are below par," Medley said. "It is not the teachers' fault. They are just following along with the curriculum. The school board should raise the education standards."

The graduate program will also include special courses for educational leaders such as principals. Dr. Jo Ann Dauzat, dean of the College of Education and a professor of curriculum, instruction and leadership, said the College of Education has always had really fine programs for the advance teachers, but this gives the same kind of chance to educational leaders.

"In Louisiana there are more positions for education leaders than there are applicants," Dauzat said. "We created this masters and educational program in hopes of filling that gap."

Dauzat said she believes these new changes will help improve the education of students all over.

Dauzat said,"I think these programs are of high quality and will produce high quality teachers for not only the state of Louisiana but also for the nation."