About Lipscomb
You may have seen or heard the famous quote from Henry Brooks Adams: “A teacher effects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” At Lipscomb, we know this to be true as we have had the privilege of seeing our teacher education graduates go on to successfully teach future doctors, missionaries, lawyers, preachers, accountants and community leaders as they too come to Lipscomb and become our alumni. One truly cannot find a more nurturing, professional and spiritual place to be as he or she grows into a teaching career. As educators, we know that the best teachers are those who are mentored by the best teachers and see mission-minded teachers in action. We believe this characterizes who we are.
As a teacher education major at Lipscomb, your love of learning and love of children will be nurtured in a developmental program that seeks to prepare you to become a teacher leader in both academic content and instructional expertise. Lipscomb teacher education graduates are not only highly qualified, with 98-100% of students passing the PRAXIS II teacher licensure exams for the past several years, but they are also highly sought-after as we have averaged a 96% job placement rate for the past two years. The College of Education is also accredited at the highest level by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) with a recent stellar accreditation review just conducted in spring 2012. While these are excellent statistics, we also have been recognized by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission as having one of the best teacher preparation programs in the state of Tennessee as reported on the 2011-2012 Tennessee Teacher Education Report Card.
The College of Education’s dedicated faculty all have the highest degree they can attain in their field and work fervently to connect the mission of teaching with the content needed to teach in their individual courses and related experiences. Supervised by full time faculty, all teacher education majors will have 100+ hours of field experiences in area schools before their final 16-week student teaching placement. Each of these field experiences is closely tracked so that you have experiences in a variety of schools – from private to public middle class to urban schools with many students who speak little English or who are impoverished. We believe these formative experiences in diverse settings help you gain clarity about the variety of job settings you can experience in the teaching profession as well as help you begin narrowing your grade level and school profile preferences before graduation.
As our vision statement notes, we are committed to teaching, learning and leading in our field. We want you to join us in this quest to be the best teachers, the best leaders and the best learners ourselves!
Sincerely,
Candice McQueen, Ph.D.
Dean, College of Education