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FRANKFORT — Kentucky State University’s (KSU) School of Education (SoE) has formed a design team of more than 50 members who have designed a dynamic strategic plan.

The team – KSU students, staff, faculty, and administrators; public school teachers and administrators; educational leaders from state agencies; and business partners – developed a plan that includes a new mission, vision, values, goals, logo, and slogan. Drs. Jo Anne Rainey and Gavin Washington met with Rep. Derrick Graham on Wednesday, February 22 to share many of the SoE’s highlights.

Built upon this firm foundation, the school is engaged in transforming its educator preparation curricula. Led by Chief Innovation Officer Dr. Ron Chi, SoE is collaborating with Frankfort Independent and Franklin County to build educator pathways that help schools grow their own teachers and also foster KSU’s enrollment. The plan is for high school grads of this program to enter KSU already meeting the requirements for admission to their Teacher Education Programs (TEPs), including passing the standardized Core exams required by state regulation, so they can begin upper-level content and educational pedagogy courses immediately.

SoE collaborates intensely with Frankfort Independent Schools to offer a new lab school, the Rosenwald Empowerment & Preparation (REP) Academy (opened fall 2016), to provide engaging environments for high school students who have been the most disenfranchised from education (Mr. Mike Hefling, principal – http://www.frankfort.k12.ky.us/rosenwald_home.aspx).

SoE’s also is working with state and national leaders to transform education:

• Educators Rising Kentucky (we’ll host first state conference at KSU 3/11/17 http://education.ky.gov/teachers/Pages/Educators-Rising.aspx);
• Brad Clark and the Hope Street Group national teacher fellows (http://hopestreetgroup.org/);
• Suzanne Farmer’s Kentucky Network to Transform Teaching (http://kynt3.org/);
• Lauren’ Hill’s Classroom Teachers Enacting Positive Solutions – KyCTEPS (See their home page at http://www.kycteps.org/ for a photo of the group on the steps of KSU’s Cooperative Extension Building);
• Sanford Inspire (http://sanfordinspireprogram.org/);
• Daniel Puder’s My Life My Power (dp@mylifemypower.org);
• Kentucky Education Association (hosted a student conference at KSU last weekend – http://www.kea.org/).