Elementary Education Grades P-5
The Elementary Education Grades P-5 certificate is intended to provide the working professional with a strong academic program that accommodates the demands of non-traditional students. The Elementary Education Achieve program prepares quality teachers who are committed to professional excellence and who positively impact P-5 student learning. This commitment is embodied in the Education Department’s model: “Facilitators of Student Success.” Embedded within the model are standards for educator preparation as follows:
A teacher who is a Facilitator of Student Success will demonstrate competence in these teacher performance standards:
- Design and plan instruction and learning climates
- Create a learning climate
- Introduce, implement, and manage instruction
- Assess student learning and communicate results
- Reflect and evaluate teaching, learning, and programs
- Collaborate with colleagues, parents, and agencies
- Evaluate professional performances and development
- Demonstrate adequate content knowledge
- Use technology to support instruction
- Demonstrate professional leadership
- Demonstrate dispositions tat facilitate student learning and success
The curriculum is intended for working adults with two years of college credit previously obtained. The purpose for enrolling will be to complete the program with a P-5 Elementary Education certification in Kentucky. An integral facet of the program is education in a Christian context with preparation for service in various educational settings. Addressing a broad range of contemporary educational issues, many courses offer opportunities for working with school-age young people. Cooperating officials from nearby school systems, as well as the Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board, provide the Department staff and students access to practical experiences.
Another facet of this program is for adults who have an undergraduate degree in an area other than elementary education. Alternative certification is the route to achieve licensure for teaching in the elementary school. Through alternative certification an adult may be hired as a P-5 teacher as long as he/she has acquired a temporary provisional teaching certificate and has an undergraduate degree. The adult must also be enrolled in a program and be working toward the P-5 certification. The temporary provisional teaching certificate must be renewed on an annual basis and can only be renewed two times after the initial year of securing the temporary provisional certificate. Adults working toward certification for elementary education P-5 that already have an undergraduate degree are strongly encouraged to talk with an advisor in the Achieve Elementary Education program.