Math and science teachers eager to keep their skills up-to-date will have a chance to work with top researchers at Washington State University, thanks to alumni Dr. Vitt Ferrucci.
Ferrucci (’44) is a retired Puyallup veterinarian with a passion for education. His long-term service on the Puyallup School Board resulted in the naming of Ferrucci Junior High in his honor. Dr. Ferrucci has established a $500,000 endowment that will make it possible each year for a teacher to be named the Dr. Vitt and Mary Ferrucci Distinguished Educator in Math, Science and Technology Education. The honor includes a salaried, expense-paid, summer sabbatical of up to six weeks at the College of Education in Pullman.
The first Ferrucci Distinguished Educator, John Parker, arrived in July. He praised the program’s flexibility. He noted that the visiting scholars can be paired with an education professor, with a researcher from a different field of study, or both.
“Teachers can work with a researcher in a lab, or work on a project of their own,” he said. “Maybe teachers want to strengthen develop and strengthen their knowledge of how to develop a science curriculum.”
Parker is an instructional coach in science for the Puyallup School District, where Ferrucci was a school board member for more than 30 years. Teachers from that district will be given priority by the College of Education committee that chooses the Ferrucci Educator. But any Washington kindergarten- through 12-grade teacher may apply. The strength of the teacher’s proposal for spending the sabbatical time will be a prime consideration, said Associate Dean Lynda Paznokas. She directs the College of Education’s School and Community Collaboration Center, which administers the program.
The program is unique, she added. “There are lots of programs in which teachers come to a university campus, but they’re usually tied to a grant, or a class, or some sort of certification,” said Paznokas. “The Ferrucci program offers the gift of time. As a teacher you are running and running, hardly coming up for air. You don’t have time for deep conversations that bring those “aha!” moments.”
Parker (right) works with Guy Westhoff (left), an assistant professor who specializes in educational technology.
Parker is an excellent choice to be the first Ferrucci Distinguished Educator, she noted, in part because he is deeply involved in science reform in Washington. Part of his time at WSU is being spent helping college faculty and staff lay the groundwork for the Ferrucci program. “We’re asking, how can the recipient get the most out of it?,’” he said.
A basic component of the program is matching the visiting educators with university faculty who can help them achieve their sabbatical goals. Parker was teamed with Guy Westhoff, an assistant professor who specializes in educational technology.
“We need to increase and improve our district’s web presence,” Parker said. “I’ve spent most of my first week here working on a mock-up of some enhancements to the science information on the web site with Guy’s help.”
The pairing has been mutually beneficial. Westhoff discovered that the Puyallup district is using a change facilitation model that was a focus of his dissertation. So the professor extended his understanding of how the model worked in a day-to-day educational setting.
“We’ve had some great collegial conversations,” Westhoff said. “The district is implementing a new science curriculum, and John and I have discussed how to support the teachers as they implement that. We have explored how you can use blogs, wikis and other web-based technologies to support and facilitate conversations with the teachers. I enjoy working with someone on the front lines of educational change.”
