December 22, 2015
Alan Buss, right, UW associate professor of elementary and early childhood education,
works with students Kaitlyn Berg and Russ Oliver on a hands-on mathematics project.
An initiative to lift UW’s College of Education to national pre-eminence in preparing
K-12 teachers, counselors and administrators has received a major boost with a five-year,
$4.5 million grant from the Daniels Fund. (UW Photo)
The University of Wyoming Board of Trustees’ initiative to elevate UW’s College of
Education to national pre-eminence in preparing K-12 teachers, counselors and administrators
has received a major boost with a five-year, $4.5 million grant from the Daniels Fund.
UW’s Board of Trustees on Friday approved receipt of the grant from the major nonprofit
organization founded by cable TV pioneer Bill Daniels. Among the Daniels Fund’s objectives
is improving the quality of the K-12 education system to ensure increased student
achievement.
The grant is central to the UW Trustees College of Education Initiative, established
by the board last year to “elevate the UW College of Education to national pre-eminent
status in professional educator preparation, ultimately to improve and enhance K-12
education in Wyoming.” The $4.5 million grant follows a $500,000 planning grant received
from the Daniels Fund earlier this year.
“We appreciate the opportunity that will be provided with this support from the Daniels
Fund to pursue the board’s ambitious plan to lift the College of Education to new
levels of excellence,” says Board of Trustees President Dave Palmerlee. “This partnership
sets the stage for what we expect will be an exciting and fruitful five-year effort
that will pay dividends for the state for many years to follow, as measured by improved
educator preparation that ultimately will increase student learning in Wyoming.”
During 2016-17, the grant will fund a strategic planning phase that includes hiring
an executive director to work in tandem with the dean of the College of Education
to lead the Education Initiative; appointment of an Education Initiative Board; and
hiring expert research consultants to help teams composed of faculty, K-12 personnel
and other stakeholders to evaluate eight of UW’s existing educator preparation programs
by studying promising programs across the country. Additionally, town hall regional
meetings will be held across the state to assess and solicit input about effective
teaching practices, and the components of effective professional educator preparation
curricula that will best serve Wyoming’s K-12 educational system.
The goal of the Education Initiative’s first phase is to produce a strategic plan
to transform UW’s entire suite of educator preparation programs. The plan developed
and approved by the Education Initiative Board and the UW trustees would be implemented
by the College of Education in the second phase, during 2018-2020.
“This will be an unprecedented effort on the part of the college and its many stakeholders,”
College of Education Dean Ray Reutzel says. “We are excited to get started on what
most certainly will be an amazing and productive journey.”
Funding for the third, fourth and fifth years of the Daniels Fund grant will be contingent
upon UW obtaining $2 million in matching funds for each of those years. The university
will work with the UW Foundation, which played a key role in securing the $4.5 million
grant, to pursue additional private funding for the Education Initiative.
An event in Cheyenne to celebrate the grant award and outline the Education Initiative’s
objectives in more detail is expected early in 2016.
