Dear Friends of SOE,
The School of Education is moving from strength to strength. This year we hired two new tenure-track faculty members, one in elementary science education and one in educational leadership and administration. This coming fall we will start the new academic year with thirteen tenure-track faculty, more than we have had for many years.
As I observe our programs, I am frequently reminded of when a colleague said to me, “If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community to raise a teacher.” The word “community” implies a group of professionals carefully coordinating their efforts, working collaboratively rather than independently, and actively engaging in the enrichment of each other’s lives. Our educator preparation programs are truly community-based teacher preparation. There is an increasingly strong sense of community commitment in our educator preparation programs, which is aligned with principles of best practice.
Our faculty are deeply engaged in building partnerships with schools and school districts in our local communities. This year Megan Guise, Tanya Flushman and Briana Ronan received a large federal grant that will, in part, examine and establish best practices in strengthening the partnerships we have between our teacher preparation programs and our local schools and school districts. It is exciting to see so many of our faculty, and so much of our collective energy, focused on strengthening school partnerships in the delivery of our teacher preparation programs.
A number of other faculty members were also awarded new research grants this year. Collectively, our faculty has more than $8 million in external funding. This is a remarkable accomplishment and reflects a true team effort, including the amazing work of our grants manager, Sarah Hegg. These grants provide an incredible boon for our students who will engage with faculty in groundbreaking work.
The renovation of our computer lab is almost complete. The new Educational Technology Lab, a cutting-edge digital collaboration classroom, will serve as a resource for our teacher candidates and for teachers in the schools with which we have partnerships. Our goal is to use the facility to help current and future teachers incorporate instructional technology more seamlessly into their classrooms.
It is richly rewarding to see the accomplishments of our school, and I am truly privileged to be the director. Thank you for your ongoing support of the School of Education at Cal Poly. Whatever your connection to Cal Poly, I pledge to continue striving to make it stronger in tandem with your continued engagement.
Cheers,
Kevin Taylor
