Project Description
The Wyoming Collaborative Mentorship Academy (WCMA) is one of four primary initiatives funded by the Wyoming State Improvement Grant (WySIG). The WCMA partners include the Wyoming Department of Education, the University of Wyoming's, Department of Special Education and the Wyoming Institute for Disabilities (WIND). Through a collaborative mentorship model based in part on the Utah Mentor Teacher Academy, this project will utilize an innovative team training approach to provide cutting edge professional development to future special educators (mentees), K-12 certified special educators (mentors), and pre-service and in-service administrators.
A key priority of the WCMA program is to establish an alternative route to teacher certification which will result in an increase of certified special educators in Wyoming. This program is also intended to provide districts with professional mentor teachers who will facilitate the recruitment and retention of future special educators as well as administrators who are empowered to promote best practices for students with disabilities.
The WCMA curriculum includes distance education courses, onsite visits, summer institutes, and practicum experiences. The program length is two years for mentees and mentors and one and half years for administrators. WCMA will begin training its first cohort in the summer of 2003. It is anticipated that two cohorts of sixty participants each will be trained during the project period funded by WySIG.
