Distance Learning Now an Option: Consortium Tackles FCS Teacher Shortage

Overview & Synopsis

In February 2001, national family and consumer sciences (FCS) leaders, state department of education supervisors, and FCS education providers from 16 higher education institutions representing every region of the U.S. met to establish a national support system and clearinghouse for FCS teacher preparation. Their goal was to aid existing FCS teacher education programs to better meet student needs for preparation in all relevant content areas, and to enable students who do not have ready access to an FCS teacher preparation program to obtain education advising, support, and preparation to facilitate becoming a licensed FCS educator or an Extension educator. From this effort, the FCS Education Program Consortium (EPC), a collaborative of universities, established a comprehensive national model for delivering student support services, sharing faculty, sharing courses, and sharing course development resources to facilitate distance-delivered FCS education preparation. The EPC partnership is one of the first of its kind to identify new ways, at a national level, to think about course delivery, course assessment, quality assurances, marketing, and accountability. None of the associations, universities, or state education agencies has the faculty, financial resources, or expertise to launch what the Consortium has undertaken.