MORE NATIVE TEACHERS IN ALASKA'S CLASSROOMS
GOAL OF NEW REPP DIRECTOR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2, 1996

Fairbanks, Alaska - One year after University of Alaska Fairbanks Chancellor Joan Wadlow and UA President Jerome Komisar convened a team to address the state's critical shortage of Native teachers, the Rural Educator Preparation Partnership (REPP) group has identified goals, issued a progress report and director has been named to oversee statewide implementation of a statewide plan of action.

John Anttonen, executive director of the Juneau-based educational service agency Southeast Regional Resource Center, will assume the directorship of REPP on a half time basis this month and full time Jan. 1.

The volunteer REPP team, made up of five university members and nine public members, was asked last October by Wadlow and Komisar to develop recommendations in four areas: improved access to UA programs preparing educators for service in rural Alaska, improved assistance with in-service needs of rural school districts, the UA response to alternative routes to teacher licensing, and a process for continuing oversight of the group's goals.

The group issued a progress report this summer and recommended that the UA Board of Regents establish a Center for Rural Educator Preparation Partnerships and a director hired. Both recommendations were formally adopted by the regents at their June 13 meeting earlier this year.

"I'm a practitioner," said Anttonen. "My job is to get more Alaskans who are Native teaching. We'll do that with a field-based, partnership-driven plan."

Anttonen envisions a comprehensive statewide teacher training program with active links among the Alaska Native community, public school systems, the university, Alaska's private colleges and universities and the Alaska Department of Education. Anttonen will take that message to the Alaska Education Summit in Girdwood this week, where he and about 250 parents, educators, school board members, business and government leaders will meet to develop community action plans to improve student learning statewide.

"The system is out of balance when only one percent of the teachers in our classrooms are Native and 99 percent of the students are Native," said Anttonen. He said REPP will push for an across-the-system plan to reach a common goal to place more highly skilled Native educators in the state's classrooms.

Anttonen previously served as president of the Alaska Association of School Administrators and President of the Alaska Council of School Administrators. He's conducted statewide training sessions for educators on a variety of topics and served on the Governor's Commission on Children and youth. Anttonen has been a school superintendent in several Alaska communities and was educational program support director for the Alaska Department of Education.

UAF Chancellor Wadlow appointed Anttonen as director of the Center for Rural Educator Preparation Partnerships in September. The REPP Center will be housed on the UAF main campus and Anttonen will report to Wadlow.

CONTACT: REPP Center Director John Anttonen, (907) 474-5589. or (907) 586-6806.

DPD/10-2-96/97-019