Featured Program: SKyTeach at Western Kentucky University
June 15, 2010
The highly successful SKyTeach program at Western Kentucky University is based on UTeach.Western Kentucky University (WKU) prepares more teachers than any other institution in Kentucky and recognizes teacher preparation as an important mission of the entire institution.
It was a natural fit, then, for WKU to implement SKyTeach, a secondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teacher preparation program based on the successful UTeach program at The University of Texas at Austin.
Before SKyTeach, it was difficult for secondary teacher candidates at WKU to complete their degrees in four years because the state requires that these students have a major, minor, general education courses, and professional education courses. The SKyTeach team established the UTeach curriculum as a second major for students being certified in a STEM content area, thereby removing the requirement of the content minor and making it possible for students to graduate in four years.
Because K-12 schools in the area are scattered among dozens of small school districts, SKyTeach has partnered with the Green River Regional Educational Cooperative, which brings together 225 schools in 31 districts, in addition to local schools in Bowling Green.
The program is a leader in innovative initiatives among the first cohort of universities implementing UTeach. SKyTeach has partnered with a regional campus in Glasgow, Kentucky to offer the first course in the UTeach sequence, Step 1, for students there. WKU also received a stimulus grant to create a master’s program, GSKyTeach, based on SKyTeach.
After four semesters of implementation, SKyTeach has a total program enrollment of 162 students and retains about 76% of its students from the first course to the second. Student response is overwhelmingly positive as well, with about 92% reporting that they are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the program.
SKyTeach is led by co-directors, Vicki Metzgar, Assistant Professor in the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, and David Erbach, Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science in Ogden College of Science and Engineering. Scott Bonham, Associate Professor of Physics, is principal investigator on the grant to replicate UTeach.
