This site will look much better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device.

Skip Navigation skip menu and banner
University of Wyoming

UW DIRECTOR OF TEACHER EDUCATION DRAWS ON EXPERIENCE

Kay PersichetteOct. 17, 2003 -- University of Wyoming Director of Teacher Education Kay Persichitte looked no further than across the border when the time came to find her next professional challenge.

The longtime northern Colorado resident predicted the UW College of Education position would be a good fit for her professional interests and abilities, even if her vita suggested a different path.

"When I first read the requirements, I thought, 'this pulls together all these other things that I have been doing that have not been part of my required job description,'" Persichitte says.

As director of teacher education, she will draw upon growing expertise in such critical areas as standards-based education and accreditation of teacher preparation programs. A background in distance education also will be an asset in a program that spans an entire state.

Persichitte has been learning about the Wyoming Teacher Education Program, the Wyoming School-University Partnership and the services the UW College of Education provides throughout the state.
"There is no place like Wyoming, in terms of our institutional and college mission," Persichitte says. "This is the only place in the nation that has the mission at the university level to supply all of these services and meet all of these needs for this diverse geographic region."

After graduating from the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) with a mathematics degree, she returned to her former high school, where she taught for 19 years. She later earned a Ph.D. in educational technology at UNC. After a brief return to her home school and an attempt to apply what she had learned to the classroom setting, she eventually retired from that district and joined the UNC Department of Educational Technology faculty.

At UNC, Persichitte developed interests in a range of areas related to instructional design and technology integration, including standards-based education, program review, curriculum alignment and accreditation. That interest led to affiliation with the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and service on NCATE's Board of Examiners. She chairs at least one Board of Examiners site visit to education colleges every semester.

Persichitte initially accepted the NCATE assignment to learn about what works and what doesn't work in teacher education at other institutions to improve her home program. Ultimately, though, the experience gave her a broader perspective and some initial answers to her questions about system-level issues.

"It is amazing to consider the ramifications of putting in place a single set of standards and knowing that the set of standards will have an impact on thousands and thousands of lives," she says.

Persichitte spent her first month at UW immersed in discussions about critical issues at the college and state levels and getting to know her College of Education colleagues.

"I've always been impressed by the people here," she says. "They are committed; they're warm, caring people. They care about each other and they care about their students. I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity at UW."