High school students share research

Oregon Teacher Pathway students present research

News contact: Laura Hancock | University Advancement | 541-962-3585 
Source contact: Tawnya Lubbes | Oregon Teacher Pathway Director | 541-962-3329

LA GRANDE, Ore. May 11, 2016 – The College of Education at Eastern Oregon University is hosting 30 high school students from Umatilla, Milton-Freewater, Pendleton and Vale presenting research as part of the Oregon Teacher Pathway program.

Students and their teachers will participate alongside their university counterparts for EOU’s Spring Symposium Wednesday, May 18. Presentations are part of the students’ introduction to education dual enrollment course.

“This is an excellent opportunity to showcase the in-depth research that our future teachers have completed at the high school level,” said Tawnya Lubbes, OTP program director. “We continue to be impressed by the level of thought and analysis that these high school students put into their projects and EOU is delighted to continue these partnerships with local high schools in the second year of the program.”

The students are also presenting at their own high schools where many community members, classmates and local government officials will be in attendance.

Area school presentations are scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, May 16 at Umatilla High School, 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 18 at Pendleton High School, 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 20 at McLoughlin High School, and 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 8 at the Vale school board meeting.

The OTP program at EOU was created in response to the need to increase the number of ethnic and linguistic minority teachers in eastern Oregon through grant funding from the Oregon Department of Education and the Oregon Education Investment Board.

OTP provides eastern Oregon its first collective effort in recruiting, educating and retaining teachers of color. Based on research that shows that students of color who are exposed to teachers of color display higher levels of academic achievements, OTP works with ethnic high school students to increase the chance that they will enter the field of education.

In the program, students earn pre-collegiate credit in teacher education, are required to do one-hour per week of field placement tutoring, and are mentored and trained by high school and university teachers. The goal is to increase the number of quality teachers of color in Oregon public schools by creating a teacher pipeline starting with juniors in high school and assisting these students as they complete their degree and teacher licensure.

For more information visit www.eou.edu/otp.