WKU College of Education and Behavioral Sciences awarded $1.3M for principal apprenticeship program
Source: WKU News.
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The College of Education and Behavioral Sciences at Western Kentucky University has been awarded over $1 million to support the first registered principal apprenticeship in Kentucky, according to WKU.
In total, the university says the $1,323,733 award will go to Project ELEVATE. The initiative will be led by Dr. Margie DeSander.
Project ELEVATE will use registered apprenticeships to provide high quality training opportunities for aspiring school leaders across Kentucky, particularly those from underrepresented populations and underserved communities, according to WKU.
Dean of the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Corinne Murphy, explained, “This project provides the opportunity to establish a framework of program delivery that builds on the outcomes of our most recent $6 million Wallace Research Foundation work including co-teaching, co-curricular alignment, and in-context project-based learning. School district leaders and university faculty will again partner to leverage all available aspects of community context to establish a live, learn, and lead model of principal preparation across multiple school districts. Given our Commonwealth’s current teacher and leader shortage, the timing for this award is critical to the needs of our schools.”
The format will allow participants to earn the required degree credit hours and principal certification through the Level Up Leadership Academy, related instruction coursework and mastery of competencies/work processes during on-the-job learning.
According to Rob Akers, co-director of Project ELEVATE, “Receiving this grant is proof positive the WKU Educational Administration faculty continue to move the needle in the preparation of educational leaders. This grant will enable us to provide funding to districts to develop their benches of future leaders. It is exciting to be on the cutting edge of this work and to be doing it at WKU.”
According to WKU, the project was funded through the Apprenticeship Building America program, the Department of Labor’s larger effort to modernize, diversify and expand the Registered Apprenticeship system across growing U.S. industries.
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