Through collaboration with numerous educational associations in the state, the University of Wyoming College of Education is moving forward with the creation of a center dedicated to educating Wyoming educational leaders.
Mark Stock, an assistant lecturer for the College of Education, leads the campaign behind the Wyoming Center for Educational Leadership, or, WyCEL.
“The mission of the center is designed to provide training and professional development for all levels of leadership, eventually, from the teachers at the classroom level, all the way up to aspiring faculty members in colleges who want to be administrators,” Stock said.
Stock said the passing of the Wyoming Education Accountability Act in 2013 was the fuel behind WyCEL’s development.
“This act is all about holding schools accountable for growing their students and improving education,” Stock said. “But, ironically enough, they pass a law to hold schools accountable, but there wasn’t the other side of capacity building or training. It’s like saying to people, ‘Get better. How? What do you want me to do? How do we train people to get better? So, the center was born with that idea.”
WyCEL, Stock said, will not be located at a physical facility and instead will rely on work done throughout school districts within the state.
“It’s a collaborative effort, I truly mean that,” Stock said. “The brainstorming and the visioning behind this organization was created by all the educational agencies coming together this July here at the university. That included school boards associations, the principals’ associations, the teachers’ unions and associations, the University of Wyoming faculty–We had other agencies there too.”
Stock said WyCEL is important because there are no other opportunities for continued education in this area in the state.
“What’s ironic is that other professions, I was thinking about professional athletics, I mean, these guys are at the top of their game,” Stock said. “They hire personal, private mentors and coaches and improve their game outside of what the organizations provide…In this profession, this is a new concept. Hopefully WyCEL will be able to provide, to some level, that degree of support for administrators who want to improve their game.”
Jillian Balow, the Wyoming state superintendent of public instruction said she also believes this project is important.
“We know that part of developing great teachers in Wyoming is also developing the capacity of those teachers as they become leaders in education,” Balow said. “So, certainly the Center for Educational Leadership plays a valuable role at the University of Wyoming and in the professional development in our teachers in Wyoming.”
Balow also spoke of the importance of WyCEL from the Department of Education’s standpoint.
“We’re excited to be talking with Dr. Stock and other colleagues at the University of Wyoming about potential partnerships and again building the capacity of our future leaders and our administrators across the state,” Balow said. “We look forward to that partnership as we move forward.”
Balow also said an organization like WyCEL is necessary for retaining Wyoming administrators throughout the state.
“There’s a great deal of turnover just in superintendents,” she said. “The average life or tenure of a school superintendent [in Wyoming] is little less than three years. That does doesn’t equate to great leadership capacity. You can cascade that all the way down to principals in schools. We have a high turnover of leaders in our schools, so having sort of this steadfast entity that provides leadership development is really good for education and we know that school districts will continue to take advantage of that.”
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