The fall 2017 TEACH Award winners were Ginger French, adjunct instructor of math, and chef Cheryl Runnebaum, assistant professor of culinary arts. (KCKCC photo) by Kelly Rogge, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College celebrated its faculty this semester by awarding the annual TEACH Awards.
Given in both the fall and spring semesters, the TEACH Award, which stands for Teaching Excellence and Colleague Honor, recognizes one full time faculty member and one adjunct faculty member for making a difference in the lives of their students.
The fall 2017 TEACH Award winners were Ginger French, adjunct instructor of math, and chef Cheryl Runnebaum, assistant professor of culinary arts.
“I was shocked, humbled and deeply honored when I received the TEACH award for fall 2017,” French said. “I didn’t even know that there was a TEACH award for adjunct faculty. It means a lot to me, knowing that this recognition comes from my colleagues – especially because I think KCKCC has such an excellent faculty.”
French and Runnebaum presented on their pedagogy at the TEACH Showcase Reception March 29 in the Center for Teaching and Excellence. Traci Dillavou, assistant professor of speech and AHSS adjunct coordinator, said a lively discussion ensued. Both former students of the recipients and fellow full-time and adjunct faculty attended the reception.
“It was an honor to be recognized by colleagues of such high esteem,” Runnebaum said. “Teaching is my passion, and I constantly strive to be the best at the art of teaching. I enjoy the variety of students and mentoring them to become the best people they can professionally and personally.”
The TEACH Award is a peer nominated and peer reviewed award. Winners receive a $100 gift card, a framed certificate and their names engraved on a plaque at the CTE.
“I think the TEACH award is especially important for adjuncts,” French said. “There are not very many opportunities to recognize part-time employees for their contributions to KCKCC.”
In addition, TEACH Award winners are able to present at a teaching showcase in their honor the following semester. The awards program was created as a subcommittee of Faculty Senate to recognize outstanding pedagogy.
“Awards like this provide motivation for people to strive to be the best that they can at their craft,” Runnebaum said. “It also provides recognition to those others feel are deserving and can be a catalyst to move further outside of their norm.”
Schlagle High School students participated in a lab at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas, during a program that teaches them about health care careers. (Photo by Elissa Monroe, KUMC Photo Services)
by Greg Peters
The University of Kansas Medical Center has joined forces with The University of Kansas Health System and the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools in launching a program designed to help students who are traditionally under-represented in health care fields learn about careers beyond the traditional medical roles of physicians and nurses.
On alternating days during the spring semester, students from Schlagle and Harmon high schools have been coming to the KU Medical Center campus for their Health Science III classes, which are part of the Health Science Academies that have been established as part of the curriculum in some of the Unified School District 500 schools.
As part of the process, students have the opportunity to learn from world-class experts, the university gets to show off many of its academic departments, and the hospital system introduces students to health-care fields they might not otherwise have thought of on their own, such as laboratory science or sports medicine.
“The ultimate goal of this program is to increase the number of students from under-represented backgrounds who are involved in health science,” said project co-investigator Maria Alonso-Luaces, who also is the director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion within the KU School of Medicine. “We would like to have students get excited about careers in health and have a greater understanding that health careers aren’t limited to being doctors and nurses.
“The program also empowers the students by showing them that the work they do in class can help change their community.”
“Providing a ‘behind the scenes’ view of the hospital and medical center helps to humanize a very complex and intimidating environment,” said Jeff Novorr, vice president of support services for The University of Kansas Health System. “The opportunity for high school students to engage with hospital and medical center staff and faculty in our facilities shows them how we work together and with the community beyond what could be demonstrated in a classroom.”
Origin of the Academy
The concept of conducting the Health Science Academy at KU Medical Center evolved out of a program launched earlier known as Teachers and Students for Community-Oriented Research and Education (T-SCORE), which is supported by a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health. T-SCORE’s goal is to empower classroom teachers to create engaging health science lessons that are relevant to the community where their school is located.
The idea to bring the Health Science III classes to KU Medical Center came about from discussions between Alonso-Luaces, who is part of T-SCORE’s administration, and Tim Murrell, coordinator for career and technical education programs at the Kansas City Kansas, Public Schools. The teachers told the two that they are always looking for projects and authentic experiences for the Health Science Academy, so Alonso-Luaces and Murrell came up with the idea to bring the students to KU Medical Center so they can have direct contact with people in health care, whether it’s research, clinical care or support services.
“A career in medicine for any student is a long shot,” Alonso-Luaces said. “We’re trying to provide them with a way into a profession that they can access right out of high school, with an undergraduate degree, or by completing a certificate program. For some it may just be an intermediate step, but for others it can be the start of a great career.”
Every week, about 20 students from each school attend the classes on alternating days at KU Medical Center. The curriculum is broken down into seven units, which are taught by volunteers from a variety of disciplines from both the university and the health system. The units include hidden careers in health care; community-based research; exploring nursing careers; health science laboratory research; CPR certification; and a unit designed specifically for each school.
“This new format has created an atmosphere that engages students and encourages their participation in health science,” said LeAnne Richardson, who is in charge of the class from Schlagle. “Also, by the classes taking place outside the regular classroom, it makes it easier to teach my students employability skills based on real-life experiences.”
By bringing students to the medical center campus, students also get used to the idea of being a part of a large campus with academics at all levels – from medical students to star researchers. They might not have had this opportunity otherwise, or at least not until much later. Now the students have the experience of navigating one of the community’s largest education and health care institutions.
In their DNA
On one particular winter Tuesday morning, a classroom in the Hemenway Building was abuzz with teen spirit as students from Richardson’s class extracted samples of their own DNA under the watchful tutelage off Irfan Saadi, associate professor of anatomy and cell biology in the School of Medicine. At the end of the class, the students were able to take home small plastic vials filled with their own DNA. Many of the students hung the vials from strings and wore them around their necks. For the students, it was a way to blend some fun with their scientific curiosity.
“I liked the part where I actually got to see the particles of DNA from my mouth,” student Amiya King said. “It’s weird but cool.”
“I like the fact that we were actually experimenting and doing scientific things like finding out new information about our DNA and what makes up our genes,” Elijah Rush said.
“I think it is critical that our high school students think big and set lofty goals for themselves,” Saadi said. “The United States education system, to a large extent, excels at this, which is why it leads the world in innovation. However, I think our system at times fails to achieve this in schools in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods. That is what I like about T-SCORE – it is helping improve the curricula directly at these schools.”
Just the beginning
To cap off the semester, students spent time creating portfolios and cover letters, practicing job interview and researching job opportunities. They presented their work in a year-end celebration in early May on the KU Medical center campus.
“We hope this is a valuable and mutually beneficial partnership,” Alonso-Luaces said. “When we met with the health system, we were a little surprised they were so excited, but I have learned that they have a little bit of a challenge recruiting entry-level positions. These can be stepping stones to a health career.”
Through hands-on experiences in the Health Science Academy, students were also able to learn about how different careers function together within a health care system, ultimately helping them to better understand how the units work together.
“Careers in health care are often perceived as being clinical; however, we require virtually every trade skill in order for our health system to function safely and efficiently,” Novorr said. “The Health Science Academy allowed the participating students an inside view of direct patient care positions as well as non-clinical support roles, and how all of the roles work together to support patient care.”
The organizers of the joint venture are already looking to the future with ideas for expanding the program. Discussions are ongoing about plans to add Wyandotte High School and possibly Washington High School as soon as fall semester. They also are talking about converting the Health Science IV class into a course where students take on internships or conduct industry-approved projects.
“One of the fun things now about T-SCORE is identifying health problems within the community and finding viable solutions after doing some research,” Alonso-Luaces said. “We’re looking at turning the Health Science IV class into something like a capstone course. If we do that, we’re going to have to find partners at the medical center and the health system. A lot of kids will be looking for mentors who can provide them with feedback and guidance for their research.”
The addition of the capstone class concept seems to be coming of age at an ideal time with the school district moving into what it calls the Diploma+ program to graduate. The program requires students to complete the required coursework plus earn one of seven endorsements. One of those endorsements just happens to be the completion of a qualified internship or industry-approved project. The proposed capstone concept would seem to fit perfectly into the Health Science Academy plan, making it successful for all involved.
Greg Peters is the senior communications coordinator at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas.
The school districts that are suing the state of Kansas over school funding said today that the bill passed recently by the Kansas Legislature is unconstitutional and doesn’t meet the Kansas Supreme Court’s requirements for adequate and equitable funding.
The plaintiff school districts, which include the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools, filed a brief today, along with the defendant, the state of Kansas, in the Gannon case. The case is in the Kansas Supreme Court. The court has previously said it would reach a decision by June 30.
The state of Kansas argued that the new school finance law met the court’s requirements and asked for dismissal of the case. The Legislature’s latest bill pumped about $500 million in additional funds into the public schools over a five-year period, which averages about $100 million a year.
The plaintiff school districts, however, say that “the state ignored the findings of every school finance expert, including its own, in determining the cost of an adequate education.” The new school finance law fails the adequacy test, according to the plaintiffs. It also fails the equity requirements, by creating “unequal access to funding,” allowing “wealthier districts more educational opportunity,” according to the plaintiff’s attorney, Alan Rupe.
“This year alone, the state is underfunding education by $506 million according to KSBE’s (Kansas State Board of Education) estimates,” Rupe stated. “The state’s response to the court’s fifth order in Gannon regarding school finance continues a pattern of chronically underfunding Kansas schools and failing Kansas schoolchildren,” Rupe stated.
The school districts have requested that the Supreme Court at least enter a finding that the Legislature should appropriate enough money to meet KSBE’s request for additional resources for fiscal year 2019, according to Rupe’s statement.
“This would require that the state fund a base of $5,090 for FY19, costing an additional $506 million this year,” he stated. The $505 million is on top of the funding added by Senate Bill 423. “However, a long-term solution is necessary to ensure each and every Kansas student is provided the opportunity to receive an education that prepares them for college or vocational success.”
The base for this year under Senate Bill 423 is $4,165.
The plaintiffs also asked the court to phase in more increases in future “out-years” to reach the additional $1.78 to $2.06 billion that the state’s own cost study showed was needed.
Defendants, represented by the state attorney general’s office, stated in their brief that the school finance bills have cured the violations identified by the court. They did not agree with the plaintiffs on many points.
The state argued in its brief that the school finance law passed this year satisfies the adequacy requirement of the state’s Constitution. It further argued that while the Legislature decided not to implement some of its own Taylor study’s recommendations, the study still would support a conclusion that the school finance law satisfied the adequacy requirement.
“The study focused on the costs of satisfying the State Board of Education’s aspirational ‘moon shot,’ which exceeds the Rose standards,” the state argued in its brief.
Also, the state argued that the Legislature declined to do a one-time short term funding surge in favor of a predictable long-term funding stream. It also argued that the five-year phase-in was reasonable and responsible legislative judgment.
The state also argued that local option budget funds and other programs funding should be considered in determining whether the Legislature has adequately funded the schools.
If the court decides the Legislature has not fully satisfied the adequacy of funding requirement, the state asked that the court at least accept the first year of the plan and allow the Legislature to address any remaining issues in the 2019 legislative session.
Any court remedy that would result in the closing of schools would violate the Kansas Constitution, a Kansas law and federal law, the state argued.
The briefs filed today are online at http://www.kscourts.org/kansas-courts/supreme-court/Cases_of_interest/Cases/113267/default.asp.
