McWhinnie Hall, Room 213
Dept. 3374, 1000 E. University Ave.
Laramie, WY 82071
Phone: 307-766-3274
Email: partnership@uwyo.edu
The University of Wyoming College of Education recently launched the Master Educator
Competency Program (MECP), which aims to address teacher attrition while developing
in-depth support systems across Wyoming’s K-12 communities. The University of Wyoming
seeks to be responsive to Wyoming’s priorities by bringing the university to communities
across the state with the implementation of this program, which is currently being
funded by the University of Wyoming College of Education along with grant funding
from the Daniels Fund.
The goal of MECP is to create a set of knowledges and skills that Wyoming’s teachers
tell us they need most to better prepare students for a rapidly changing world. During
the developmental phase of the competencies currently underway, a cross-curricular
team of University faculty will be traveling throughout Wyoming in September and October
to hold 3-hour listening sessions with scores of educators to begin building locally
designed, community-based learning modules. These learning modules will shape the
competencies teachers will embody after completing the program while answering the
question: “What knowledge and skills do you need to better prepare your students for
a rapidly changing world?” Dr. Neil Theobald previously conducted 32 interviews over
six weeks in July and August where he listened directly to Wyoming’s parents, business
owners, and community leaders to hear their perspectives on how to effectively sustain
the teacher workforce in Wyoming.
In November and December, the College of Education will utilize the information gathered
during these interviews and visioning sessions to review its current learning experience
in an effort to better reflect the challenges faced by Wyoming’s local communities
and develop the competencies that Wyoming’s teachers tell us they need most. “Better
coherence between teacher knowledge, skills, and community realities should increase
retention of high performing K-12 teachers in Wyoming’s classrooms,” said Dr. Neil
Theobald.
Throughout MECP, Wyoming K-12 teachers will engage with uniquely designed learning
modules that develop identified knowledges and skills. “We are honing in on teacher
retention and attrition in rural areas by addressing a primary cause that teachers
are mismatched with district needs. Lack of support and professional learning drive
departure from the field of education. Collaboratively with the districts, we can
develop what is needed to support master teachers. We are utilizing the outcomes of
the listening sessions from those local districts to design a uniquely centered product
that will address the issue through competency-based micro-learning experiences that
are contextual and adaptive,” said Dr. Mia Williams. The learning modules are designed
with local needs in mind and will not only strengthen identified needs but will also uplift
thriving teacher competencies that support students. These modules will not be utilizing
Canvas or the face-to-face concept, but rather will be an adaptive, accessible, and
interactive learning experience with AI enhancements. The program will also tap into
metrics-based learning to accompany the metacognitive, AI adaptive learning platform.
Dr. William Cain elaborated on the software that UW College of Education will be implementing
to house the content for MECP, “The learning management platform that MECP will be
using is actually owned by a partner of 2Revolutions, the company that is consulting
on the project. That whole system, along with the metacognitive/adaptive learning
feature, is owned by a 3rd party, i.e., not something that we here at UW College of
Education are developing in-house. We will ultimately be responsible for developing
the content for MECP modules, but not the software.”
Figure 1: This graphic depicts the timeline of the Master Educator Competency Program.
With teacher attrition and statewide school shortages at the forefront of the education
discussion, this program aims to strengthen and support that early career phase using
existing competencies, skills, and knowledge. The Wyoming School-University Partnership
holds a unique position in regards to facilitating conversation between districts
and the College of Education, and we plan to collaborate on and boost the success
of MECP through all phases of development. These phases include the following:
“Historically speaking, this is the type of project that the Partnership was created to collaborate on. WSUP holds the unique position of bringing together practitioners and stakeholders within the education community into one entity to collaborate and I believe this is at the core of what school-university partnerships are intended to facilitate,” said Dr. Neil Theobald.
McWhinnie Hall, Room 213
Dept. 3374, 1000 E. University Ave.
Laramie, WY 82071
Phone: 307-766-3274
Email: partnership@uwyo.edu