Impact Statement for   Stephanie Richards

Planning Unit	195 - Pike County
Area	312 - Northeast
Reporting Year	2006
Last Updated	8/6/2006 6:17:26 PM
CMAP	1808 - COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
PAC	300 - Leadership, Civic Engagement, and Economic Development
Title	Professional Development Plan for Pike County Educators

Impact Statement

PACE (Pike Arts Cooperative Education) Program has completed its first year and looking forward to the second. Educational budget, testing, and overload challenges have forced the arts out of the schools, thus reducing the development of a major tool for critical thinking.

Pike County Cooperative Extension for Fine Arts is partnering with Pike County Schools to bring a full curriculum for Arts and Humanities to the 23 schools of Pike County. This is being realized through:
1. Monthly Professional Development Workshops for all teachers
2. Adopt a School/Adopt an Artist Program - marrying a local artist with a local school and then rotating the artists through the schools.
3. Arts and Humanities teachers have had no curriculum guide or text with which to teach the children. We have located and are in the process of providing each school with a set of texts that outline the Kentucky Core Curriculum for Arts and Humanities.

This program has touched over 9,000 students and 35 teachers of the arts in Pike County. During one Professional Development Workshop one teacher through tears stated, "Up until now, I thought I was stupid and alone 'cause I didn't know what I was doing. But now I see how to get there."