Mansfield University of Pennsylvania
Developing Tomorrow's Leaders
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New Initiatives

Mission Statement

The mission of the New Initiatives Work Group of the K-16 Partnership Council is to identify, research, and recommend to the K-16 Council new initiatives which to align with the purpose(s) of the K-16 Council and will positively effect life-long learning.

Goals

  1. To raise the level of awareness of cutting-edge information and the need for information technology.
  2. To work towards a seamless alignment of education between all levels of education.

Work Group Members

  • Mr. Tom Shivetts, Executive Director,  BLaST IU 17
  • Dr. Dennis J. Murray, Professor, Mansfield University
  • Mr. Kevin Green, Coordinator Of Information Technology, Mansfield University
  • Dr. Edward C. ( Ted) Nichols, Director, North Campus Outreach Services, Pennsylvania 
    College of Technology

Projects

  1. K-16 CouncilThe New Initiatives group has adopted information literacy as their major project.  Since information literacy crosses all academic subject areas and the needs of today's workforce, it is imperative that this theme be explored.  Assessing the need for information literacy in  K-16 education, surveying local industry and general population on their support and interest in an information literacy program, identifying possible agencies who would be interested in receiving grant applications to support this proposal, and possibly sponsoring a regional conference with a motivational speaker are all key parts of the groups project.  New Initiatives has applied for and successfully recieved the Commonwealth Libraries LSTA Grant, which will serve schools and libraries.  This grant will focus on academic standards and information literacy skills.
     
  2. New Initiatives has also taken on a project to improve student and pre-service teacher development by assessing and identifying expected needs in educational preparation, locating appropriate resources to address these needs, and organizing a conference to connect learners to these resources.  Activities in this endeavor include identifying external organizations and experts who will make presentations to the K-16 Council and their representative organizations, identifying model schools, and online education/information literacy. 

    Judy Marquette,  Director of State Academic Standards spoke to the K- 16 Council recently  about the Partnership for Education Excellence Network.  The Partnership is a collaboration of the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Pennsylvania Association of Intermediate Units.  She gave an overview of the objectives and goals of the partnership, as well as, provided an opportunity for the council members to become more familiar with the standards based resources that they have developed to assist educators, families, and the community understand the importance of academic standards.  

Contact Information

For  questions or more information concerning the New Initiatives Work Group please contact:
Mr. Tom Shivetts
Executive Director 
Intermediate Unit 17
PO Box 63 
Granville Summit, PA 16926
(570) 673-6001
tshivetts@IU17.org
 
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