For MAT Students, Hope High Experience Is a 'Two-Way Street'

by Mary Jo Curtis

As Providence educators strive to improve the curriculum and increase student achievement at Hope High School, current and former students in Brown's Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program are playing a part in the school's rejuvenation. Eight Hope faculty members are MAT alumni, including four who graduated this past May; another four MAT candidates are student teaching at the high school.

"This is by far the largest number of teachers we've had at Hope for many years," notes Eileen Landay, clinical professor of English education, who believes these teachers reflect a trend among Brown MAT graduates.

"A substantial number of our graduates have been choosing to stay in this area, and in Providence in particular, rather than going out of state to teach," she says. "We think we turn out extraordinary young teachers - so we're thrilled if they stay close by and we can still work with them."

Hope High English teacher Jonathan Goodman '89 is among those who've remained in the city.

"I chose to stay in Providence because I was drawn to the diversity of its student population," he says. "I felt there was need. I also felt there was potential for creating change both with individual students and with whole school programs."

Goodman says his MAT experience gave him "a strong foundation in principles that I still use to shape instruction," and he's remained involved with Brown's Education Department, working as a mentor teacher at Brown Summer High School and participating in the Arts Literacy Program - and now by mentoring MAT student teacher Sarah Leibel '97.5. Leibel, who earned her undergraduate degree in comparative literature, returned to Brown this year to enter the MAT program because she liked "its progressive approach and emphasis on urban education."

"It's a small program, so you get lots of individual attention and feedback," she says.

The sixty students admitted to the practice-based MAT program each year earn both a master's degree and certification in one of four areas: elementary education, or secondary English, science or history/social studies. (A related program is also available to Brown undergraduates.) What distinguishes Brown's MAT program from others is its combined focus on "high quality graduate work in the student's content area and preparation for teaching," according to Landay. Students begin each June with a practicum at Brown Summer High School or a similar elementary summer program.

"People love the idea of immediately being immersed in the world of the classroom," says Landay. "They love that the program is small and the mentoring is very personal. Usually university and school work are divorced, but at Brown they're tightly interwoven."

Landay illustrates that relationship in her own work: She teaches pedagogy, then supervises three of the four student teachers at Hope. She also leads a literacy study group there, working with seven department leaders to promote literacy across the curriculum.

This collaboration in which Brown students and faculty work closely with Hope High School students and faculty "is without a doubt a two-way street, with people from both institutions giving as much as they are getting," stresses Landay. "There's important learning taking place at Hope and at Brown."

Leibel says she has been "impressed and delighted" by her students at Hope. Despite public perceptions too often to the contrary, she finds the students "curious and motivated, and eager to learn and graduate." And Leibel has already decided what she'll do when she earns her MAT in May: She's joining the trend, she says.

"I'm going to looking for jobs in Providence."