dean’s message

College of Education

Michael Holen, dean, College of Education

K-State’s College of Education is dedicated to turning young adults into enthusiastic teachers who make a difference in their students — and their communities.

“The College of Education prepares students for a wide range of educational opportunities,” Dean Michael Holen said. “They may work in public or private schools, community colleges or four-year universities. Our graduates also are employed in health care facilities, state and federal education offices, community service, businesses or extension service.”

More frequently, though, education graduates find themselves as teachers, administrators or counselors in Kansas schools.

“The College of Education at Kansas State University has always projected to our constituents a very strong orientation to school systems and young people across the entire state,” Holen said. “Whereas many other teacher-preparation institutions have a more regional focus, we view ourselves as being responsible for preparing teachers from the northeastern corner of the state to the southwestern corner of the state and everywhere in between.”

The land-grant tradition

Although the College of Education is not normally associated with the land-grant tradition, Holen said, he believes the college indeed reflects that tradition. “The land-grant tradition has been embraced by our faculty. It shows throughout our programming; our constituents see that teacher preparation really is a part of the theme of the land-grant mission of teaching, research and service.” Students who want to be teachers generally have a strong commitment to the profession and to service.

“One of the benefits of being at a large, multipurpose university like Kansas State University is the range of options to explore,” Holen said. “Students can choose from a tremendous number of uniformly high-quality programs. Many of these students find that some combination of their intellectual disposition, their social conscience and their desire for a particular way of life, leads them to want to become teachers.”

Atrracting students with scholarships

Attracting these types of students to the college isn’t always easy when scholarships from other colleges beckon.

“We need to do a better job of explaining to people the nature of teaching and its rewards — but teaching is competing with higher-salaried jobs in the marketplace,” Holen said. “We need a level of scholarship support making preparing for teaching attractive and competitive. Scholarships aren’t just a question of competition with other institutions or majors. Scholarships equalize the decision-making process for young people who might otherwise choose a lower-paying job over a higher-paying job because it has social and psychological value.”
That’s why the College of Education is seeking to establish endowed scholarships.

“We have to have the scholarship support — not to attract students from Massachusetts — but to attract the young person from Herington, Kan., who has a good, solid ACT score or results and strong high school preparation, who thinks they’d really like to be a teacher, but another college is going to offer them $3,000 a year, and we can’t do that,” Holen said. “We need scholarship support so that money isn’t what helps decide a student’s major.”

Maintaining quality

In spite of a need for additional scholarships, the College of Education attracts significant numbers of students. “We have one of the largest undergraduate programs, the largest undergraduate minor, and graduate about 30 percent of the doctoral and 25 percent of the master’s students at the university.”

The high numbers reflect both the high quality of our graduates and great need for teachers and other school personnel across the state.

“We want to service quantity needs in a high-quality way,” he said. “We believe it is not our business to seriously restrict our enrollment. We contend it’s our responsibility to prepare a significant number of very high-quality people to teach across the state of Kansas. That’s particularly true in rural areas that are experiencing population loss.

“If communities can’t attract good teachers, those communities often fail. The school is the heart of many communities. It’s sometimes the largest single employer. It’s the place where the community gains its identity. Without good teachers and good schools, those communities might well cease to exist. It’s our responsibility to prepare significant numbers of teachers so that those schools have choices. It’s not an issue of preparing one teacher for one job; it’s a matter of preparing a number of teachers so that we can match the right teacher for that community and that job. I believe we do that very well.”

Along with professional education programs, the College of Education includes the Midwest Educational Assistance Center, Center for Rural Education and Small Schools, and a Center for Science Education, as well as the universitywide Leadership Studies and Programs minor program, which has nearly 1,200 students enrolled.

A priority for future funding is construction of a new building for Leadership Studies and Programs, currently located in two rental houses across the street from the university. In addition, updates are sought for Bluemont Hall, a relatively new campus building constructed in 1981, but one that needs improved spaces.

Teachers don’t generally seek recognition for their work, Holen said, and he believes his college is a quiet source of excellence.

“Our college’s stature in the preparation of school personnel is a well-kept secret,” he said. “Education doesn’t have a good national rating system, and it’s hard to get a handle on who does a great job in teacher preparation. But in all the ways most professionals judge excellence, we place extremely high.”