The Truman Pierce Institute: Making a Difference in Alabama Dr. Cindy Reed, Director Truman Pierce Institute College of Education Auburn University.

The Truman Pierce Institute: Making a Difference in Alabama

Dr. Cindy Reed, DirectorTruman Pierce InstituteCollege of EducationAuburn University

Who Was Truman Pierce?

The Truman Pierce Institute is named in honor of Dr. Truman M. Pierce, an educational visionary, who served as Dean for Auburn University’s College of Education for two decades and made regional and national contributions to educational arenas. He especially focused on ways to improve society and the lives of people across the state and nation.

Purposes

To support progress toward meeting the educational needs of the state and region

To foster collaborative partnerships to improve education and educational opportunities

To assist in the development and implementation of professional development schools/systems in order to stimulate renewal of higher education and public schools

To improve the conditions within schools and communities that influence the effectiveness of leadership, education, and community and economic development

Current Projects West Alabama Learning Coalition AU/Tallapoosa County Leadership Academy Instructional Improvement Institute (I3) Research on the History of Education/Community

Involvement for Kettering Foundation (partnered with AU Center for the Arts and Humanities)

Educational Policy Research Initiative Alabama Online Encyclopedia (secondary partners with AU

History Dept., AL Humanities Foundation, and others) Auburn City Schools/AU Professional Development School

Relationship On-going research and publications Support for/creation of partnerships and school-based

programs Educational assessments conducted for the Alabama

Communities of Excellence Initiative

West Alabama Learning Coalition Partnerships among K-12 schools, higher

education, community colleges, and community/business leaders focused on simultaneous improvement of K-12 and teacher education as well as community and economic development

9 West Alabama (or with similar demographics) counties [Hale, Sumter, Wilcox, Clarke, Monroe, Fayette, Macon, Lee-Loachapoka, Tallapoosa]

What has been accomplished? Expanded emphasis on need for educational

improvement, economic development, and community development occurring simultaneously

2 Coalition-wide meetings each year since 1997 Coordinators (PT) hired for each partnership Monthly coordinator meetings during 2001-2002 and

2002-2003, 2003-2004 academic years Focus on capacity building Many new partners added Improved Student Learning Opportunities!!

Progress Made Toward Improved

K-12 Student Learning After school and/or Saturday tutoring programs offered in most partnerships

Future Educator groups founded in 3 partnerships and more are being created

Distance Education classes offered Improved libraries Aquaculture programs created Career preparation programs/opportunities Standardized test scores have gone up in most

partnerships

Expanded Involvement of Business and Community Members Banks (United, Frontier, Regions) Area Businesses (Alabama River Pulp, Alabama River

Newsprint, Frisco City Manufacturing, Scotch Lumber Company

State and National Businesses (Alabama Power, Weyerhaeuser, Blue Cross/Blue Shield)

Churches and church groups Community Agencies (Betterment Assoc., Leadership

NOW, Health Departments, DHR, BAMA Kids, Delta Kappa Gamma)

Politicians -- several serving as members of planning teams

AU/Tallapoosa County Leadership Academy Phase I: On-going professional development

for principals and central office administrators (Began January 2003)

Phase II: On-going professional development for assistant principals and teacher leaders (Began February 2003)

Phase III: Student leadership development opportunities (Began Fall 2003)

Goals Prepare the district for accreditation Develop leadership capacity and vision

within the district Identify potential leaders from within the

system Encourage students to consider teaching

and school administration as viable careers

Conduct research about effective job-embedded professional development

Professional Development Topics Covered to Date Team Building Creating and Communicating Vision What Does it Mean to be a Leader in

Today’s Schools? Preparing for SACS Accreditation Educational Law Building Leadership Capacity

Educational Policy Research Initiative Conduct timely, contextually relevant

educational policy research for legislators and the state department of education

Building upon 6 years of experience doing policy research for selected legislators

The spring 2003 focus was on policy issues pertaining to Teacher Recruitment and Retention for ALSDE

This spring’s focus was on School Safety and Violence Prevention for Congressman Artur Davis’ office

Instructional Improvement Institute (I3)

Built upon successes and lessons learned from AU/Tallapoosa Leadership Academy and the West Alabama Learning Coalition

Cost-effective, job-embedded professional development for administrators, teacher leaders, and student leaders (traditional and non-traditional) in four school systems

Monthly professional development focused on instructional improvement, problem solving, communicating effectively, and action planning

Creation of principals’ advisory teams and district-wide advisory councils

Creation of school-based grant writing teams

Anticipated Outcomes

Increased academic performance Lower dropout rates Increased grant money Increased focus on teaching and learning Grow your own approach to developing

current and future community leaders

Kettering Foundation Research Research on the history of education and

community involvement and its influence on public education

In partnership with AU Center for the Arts and Humanities

Exploration of what roles, if any, experiences and characteristics of community members play in how they view a community’s public schools

Public forums to be held for deliberations about these histories

Pilot phase to include Tallapoosa County School District and Choccolocco (Calhoun County)

Three-year study to include other communities, particularly those in West and South Alabama

Alabama Online Encyclopedia Lead partners are AU History Department

and the AL Humanities Foundation Our role is to connect/solicit input from K-12

educators throughout the process Creation of an Online Encyclopedia of

Alabama that will be useful for education, research, tourism, and economic development

Anticipated date of unveiling: Fall 2007

On-going Research and Publications Regular publication of two professional

journals Monograph series on research important to

educational needs of the state and region Forums to foster dialogue about teaching,

learning, leadership, and policy

Alabama Communities of Excellence Non-profit organization comprised of

businesses, community agencies, social service agencies, higher education, and others focused on helping small communities to improve their quality of life

Competitive process-8 communities selected the first year

Our role is to help conduct educational assessments