Persichitte: Deanship a natural next step

Dean Kay Persichitte

Editor's note: to hear Dean Kay Persichitte discuss the College of Education's P-16 leadership role, click here.

   For College of Education Dean Kay Persichitte, the move to the executive office after more than 30 years in education was a natural next step and an extension of her impact on generations of students.
  "When I thought about the deanship as an opportunity for leadership and an opportunity to have an impact on literally thousands of learners because of the effect that this faculty has on graduate and undergraduate students and the impact that they will have on thousands of students in their careers there was my opportunity," she says.
   Persichitte was already a familiar face in the college, on campus, and across the state when she assumed the deanship in July. Kay joined the faculty in 2003, as director of teacher education. In that role, she administered the Wyoming Teacher Education Program (WTEP), oversaw the Office of Teacher Education and led the college through its 2008 National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) reaccreditation process.
   As director of teacher education, she played a leadership role in facilitating the redesign of the residency program for preservice teachers, collaborating not only with campus faculty but also with school district administrators, mentor teachers and other partners involved in the process.
   The resulting program "has transformed the residency experience for the students who are in those partner school districts," she says. "The difference in the feedback that we're getting from mentor teachers, from our students, from district personnel, and from the principals who are hiring graduates coming from these programs is amazingly positive."
   Building and maintaining strong ties to partners in the schools, the Wyoming Department of Education, colleagues in our community colleges, and on campus is a critical leadership responsibility, according to Persichitte.
   "We have a responsibility to stay connected, for the benefit of our students and to be accountable for the quality of teachers who will become the next generation of teachers in this state and others," she says. "We also have a responsibility to model the kinds of leadership that we expect our graduates to demonstrate."
   Representing the only public, four-year institution providing teacher preparation programs heightens both the potential to make a significant impact and the responsibilities for comprehensive service.
   "Being singular means that we have a lot of control of our own destiny," Persichitte says. "It minimizes, to a large extent, our internal collaborations related to programs. But on the other hand, it maximizes our responsibility for collaboration with those other state partners and stakeholders in the P-16 system."
 "The ultimate responsibility and accountability for the quality of our graduates is our own," she adds. "We have a major commitment to quality control, as well as a major commitment to partnering and sharing."
   Persichitte acknowledges both the college's lead role in providing the programs that meet Wyoming's professional development needs and the challenges of doing so, particularly the limitations that come with limited staffing.
     "That is our greatest constraint at this point in our history," she says. "Certainly, we have had amazing support at this institution and in this college from the state legislature and from our president and academic affairs to help us address these opportunities and challenges as best we can. But human resources are still a finite construct."
  "This work is never done," she adds. "As technologies change, as needs change, and as the demographics change in this state, these will always be issues for the College of Education and for the University of Wyoming. We continue to do our best to meet those challenges."
   Leadership
    With the successful NCATE reaccreditation behind the college, our focus will shift toward a comprehensive assessment and review of our graduate programs.
   "All of our graduate programs offer opportunities for supporting and impacting learners and/or the learning environment in positive ways," she says. "Some of our graduate programs hold tremendous potential to have critical impact on the leadership of public school settings."

 

Posted on Wednesday, October 15, 2008