Senator Levin and Higher Education Leaders Announce New Consortium to Make Michigan "Number 1" in Training Teachers to Use Technology
June 3, 1999

WASHINGTON -- Michigan college and university leaders joined Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., in East Lansing today to announce the formation of a consortium that will establish the nation's highest standards for training new teachers to use technology in the classroom. 

Beginning in the 1999-2000 academic year, the Consortium for Outstanding Achievement in Teaching with Technology, or COATT, will award certificates of recognition to pre-service teachers who have demonstrated an exceptional ability to use information technology as a teaching tool. This certificate is expected to be a boon to those seeking their first teaching jobs and an aid to administrators who want to hire new teachers who can spur the technology revolution in their schools. 

Representatives from the ten founding members of COATT signed a Letter of Agreement at Michigan State University's College of Education in East Lansing in a ceremony linked by two way video technology to several campus sites around the state. In addition to Michigan State, the founding COATT member institutions are: Albion College, Andrews University, Eastern Michigan University, Lake Superior State University, Michigan State University, Oakland University, Western Michigan University, the University of Michigan and the University of Michigan-Dearborn. 

The Consortium was formed in response to a challenge Levin issued to teacher training institutions in Michigan in April of 1998, calling on them to work cooperatively to establish the state's leadership in this area. Over the last year, the colleges and universities have worked with school administrators and teachers to develop COATT and the standards it will use to recognize excellence. 

"Michigan is already recognized as a leader in producing new teachers," said Levin. "If we set our minds to it, I'm convinced we can be the best in the nation when it comes to teaching teachers to use these new tools. This consortium is going to go a long way toward helping us achieve that goal."