Dear Friends of SOE,
I am in my second year as director in the School of Education, and I have been Learning by Doing. I learned about the faculty and staff’s commitment to student success, the school’s diverse collaborations around teacher education across the university and throughout the community, and our inspiring students and their deep desire to become great teachers. I also learned a great deal about the evolving and dynamic nature of my new position.
Earlier this year the School of Education hosted Marquita Grenot-Scheyer, assistant vice chancellor for teacher education and public school programs from the CSU Office of the Chancellor. As part of her visit, Dr. Grenot-Scheyer observed the Learn by Doing Lab on campus, in which local middle school students engaged in science experiments and blew up balloons. When she wrote to thank me for hosting her visit, she noted that seeing students in action teaching middle school science was a highlight, and she observed something I’ve known for a while when she wrote, “I thoroughly enjoyed my meetings with your faculty; they clearly represent some of the best we have in the CSU system.”
We welcomed two outstanding new faculty members this year, Oscar Navarro and Daniel Almeida. They have a great deal of potential as teachers and scholars, and it’s been exciting to add them to our team. Oscar will teach in our Single Subject Credential Program as well as the Curriculum and Instruction Specialization within the master’s degree program, while Danny will teach in our Counseling and Guidance/Student Affairs graduate program. We also welcomed our new assessment coordinator, Virginia McMunn. Virginia is in her first quarter and has already found her feet looking for ways to help our programs collect assessment data for program review, accreditation and program improvement.
As we welcome new team members, we also say goodbye to longtime friends to whom we owe a considerable debt of gratitude. Jodi Jaques and Steve Kane are both retiring from our Counseling and Guidance/Student Affairs program. Jodi will be leaving the area to pursue new endeavors, and Steve has elected to enter the Faculty Early Retirement Program (FERP). When budgets cuts and a stagnant job market threatened our Counseling and Guidance program, Jodi and Steve crafted a new focus on higher education student affairs and built the program we have today.
We are also saying goodbye to an even longer-serving member of our team this year. Phil Bailey, dean of the College of Science and Mathematics (COSAM) for 34 years, is retiring. Phil has been an important member of the Cal Poly family for almost 50 years, and his remarkable legacy is unlikely to ever be matched. The School of Education has been housed in COSAM for the last eight years, and Phil has supported us through some pretty tough budget years. Phil is passionate about training excellent science and mathematics teachers and has long been a champion of our cross-college commitment to teacher education. Whatever your connection to Cal Poly, you probably know Phil as he was undoubtedly here while you were.
The statewide shortage of teachers is a constant focus for the School of Education as we strive to mentor a new generation of teachers. We are excited to report that applications are up in all of our programs, and next year we will again be able to train more teachers than the year before. We are committed to maintaining this growth, and we look forward to welcoming the first cohort of World Languages candidates into our Single Subject Credential Program this coming fall. We are also looking to bolster our Spanish Authorization in Bilingual Education program with scholarships for local teachers. Let me know if are interested!
Thank you for reading and for your ongoing support of the School of Education at Cal Poly. I am thrilled to be director of your school, and whatever your connection to Cal Poly, I pledge to continue striving to make it stronger in tandem with your continued engagement. Organizations like ours thrive on teamwork, so if you see an opportunity to improve our programs, drop me a line and let’s work together.
Cheers,
Kevin Taylor
