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Mission Statement
The
Office is the service arm of the College of Education and serves as
the liaison between the College and the school districts in the EKU
service region and beyond.
A principal
service function of the office is the Southeast/South-Central Educational
Cooperative. The director of the office serves as the director
of the Cooperative. The College of Education releases the director
from his 6-hour teaching load to provide this leadership for the Cooperative. The COE, through its trust fund monies, fully funds the salary of an
assistant director for the Cooperative. The Cooperative provides
regular monthly meetings for its superintendents, the instructional
supervisors/professional development coordinators, and the P-12 principals
in the member districts. The Cooperative provides extensive professional
development training for teachers, administrators, and non-certified
staff in the 24 districts that hold membership in the Cooperative.
Districts outside the Cooperative are invited to attend these professional
development opportunities. The Cooperative also operates
a Principals’ Academy to address the job specific needs of the
P-12 principals in its member districts. A menu of regular professional
development opportunities for these building administrators is offered
each year.
The
Office of Field Services and Professional development also houses and
operates the Kentucky Teacher Internship Program for the EKU service
region. The Director’s time and support for this program is provided
free of charge by the COE. The director is a certified Commonwealth
trainer for the program and as such conducts numerous training sessions
for KTIP committee members. The director also manages a budget
from the Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board to operate
the program in the EKU service region and to assign and pay university
personnel who serve as Teacher Educators on KTIP committees.
The
Office of Field Services and Professional development assists in the
management of the College of Education’s Center for the Renewal
of schools and the Education Professions by managing the Professional
Education Fellows program and by scheduling and conducting cutting-edge
educational conferences. The Fellows program provides university
faculty to work directly in P-12 settings over a 3-year period to assist
the P-12 faculty in addressing an identified growth need in the school.
This partnership arrangement is provided to the schools at no cost. The Fellows Class of 2001 numbered 26 individuals from 3 colleges and
13 departments serving 38 schools in 15 school districts. The Fellows
Class of 2002 will number 8 individuals from 4 colleges and 7 departments
with programs established in 15 schools in 8 districts. Two of those
individuals are still seeking a school partner.
Over
the 2001-2002 school year the Center conducted 11 conferences for P-12
teachers and administrators and for university faculty and administrators.
These 11 conferences provides 22 days of training for the participants
led by nationally recognized consultants at minimal or no cost to the
schools. These sessions ranged from training on the use of the
Palm Pilot to Diversity to Differentiated Instruction to Educating Kentucky’s
At-Risk Kids to Applying Brain Research to the Classroom. Seven
conferences are presently being planned for the 2002-2003 school year
to address such topics as Educator Dispositions, Diversity, and High
Expectations.
The
Office of Field Services and Professional Development is a model for
extending the services and expertise of a college of education and a
regional university to P-12 schools in the institution’s service
region and indicated the depth of EKU’s commitment to meeting the needs
of the schools in the Commonwealth. |
