Teaching was right up his alley
By Julie Rausch
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Donald Killian, left, associate professor emeritus of math, and Bob Alley share a laugh at Alley’s retirement reception. Alley has been granted professor emeritus status. |
Professor Bob Alley is leaving higher education feeling very satisfied about his 33 years in the department of curriculum and instruction at WSU, he says.
WSU has always had a very forward-looking teacher education program, says Alley, who retired in December.
"I’ve appreciated that people are willing to make changes," he says. "For example, I’m sure we are ahead of most institutions as far as the integration of technology into our classes."
Alley has been among those faculty who’ve helped introduce progressive initiatives. One of his early moves was to set up classroom experiences in the Wichita public schools for students learning to be teachers.
"Bob has a lot of history with WSU program initiatives to help area schools address program and personnel needs," says Dennis Kear, curriculum and instruction department chair.
Alley wrote the grant proposal for the Returning Peace Corps Fellows program and was its first director in 1992, says Kear.
That program led to the state’s only alternative teacher certification program at WSU. The program accepts professionals as well as returning Peace Corps volunteers with bachelor’s degrees or higher to be provisionally certified to teach in secondary schools while simultaneously earning their certification and a master’s degree in education. This gives people with a strong desire to teach a way to go to school and earn a living, and it is one way to address a significant teacher shortage in middle and high schools.
Alley has done studies on trends in education. Teacher shortages particularly at the secondary level have already reached critical levels on the coasts. Alley says he thinks the problem will get worse because many teachers are near retirement age. Also, when jobs are plentiful teaching is a less attractive career choice, and about 25 percent of those who go into teaching quit after a few years, he says.
Another projection concerns school choice. He says parents have seen the possibilities available so far with magnets, charters and alternative schools, and the opportunity for parents to select which school their children attend is becoming increasingly popular.
There’s also a tremendous interest in setting requirements for students to assure some sort of quality, says Alley, who taught in public schools in Iowa and Arizona before coming to WSU.
"Unfortunately, setting requirements does not generally assure quality. It’s pretty hard to say to a student ‘you will do this or that,’ when in the end, the kids are the ones who have to do the studying."
Students not completing homework is the number one complaint heard from teachers, Alley says. There are so many competing kinds of entertainment – videos, computers, television and games, Alley says.
"I don’t know what the answer is," Alley says, "but I suspect if we can get students motivated by what they are interested in doing, that’s probably the direction to go."
In recent years Alley has particularly enjoyed working with practicing teachers who are graduate students. He says one of his strengths has been to help experienced teachers see the relevance of theory and how it can be of practical use in the classroom.
Alley has been teaching at WSU’s site-based master’s programs in Andover and Winfield. He also has continued to work with students in the alternative teacher certification program.
Bob Lane, who took over the ATC program in 1995, and who had previously worked with Alley when Lane was an administrator with the Wichita public schools, says Alley has always been a student advocate.
Alley also was department chair for 13 years and associate dean for seven years.
