Teachers in two areas, agriculture and early childhood with special education credentials, can now be trained at Fort Hays State University.

This year, the Kansas State Board of Education approved the two programs at FHSU. The agriculture program makes FHSU the only Kansas institution other than Kansas State University allowed to prepare teachers of agriculture for grades six through high school. In the Early Childhood Unified program, teachers are trained for birth through grade three with training for special education credentials included in the course of study.

For secondary school agriculture teachers, the state of Kansas has until now reserved that function for Kansas State, but a single program in the state has been unable to keep up with demand, said Dr. John Greathouse, chair of the Department of Agriculture at FHSU. He said a similar shortage of agriculture teachers is evident in Nebraska and Colorado.

For the Early Childhood Unified (ECU) program, the primary differences from the TEAM (Together Everyone Accomplishes More) K-6 program are the addition of the birth to age 4 program and including the special education component. The ECU program is also available totally online through FHSU's Virtual College.

Elementary school teachers graduating from FHSU's TEAM program are trained to teach all subjects to all students -- math, reading, science and social science, said Dr. Germaine Taggart, interim chair of the Department of Teacher Education. They need special professional training to be licensed to teach the age range of birth through age 4 and for special needs children.

Methods courses -- how to teach individual subjects -- will be linked to three 40-hour internships for the early childhood program. In the 120 total hours of internships, said Taggart, the prospective teachers "work with young children, parents, mentoring teachers and schools." The internships involve working in three teaching areas: birth to age 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds, and kindergarten through third grade.