Bridget Powell has been chosen to provide leadership in education policy design and implementation as a Teacher Fellow for the 2017-18 Hope Street Group Kentucky State Teacher Fellowship.
The Hope Street Group Kentucky State Teacher Fellowship is a nonpartisan program that provides a group of diverse public school teachers — who are chosen through a rigorous selection process — with skills focused on peer and community relationship building, moderating peer focus groups and communication strategies. Fellows’ competency development leads to meaningful opportunities for teachers to inform policy decisions.
Hope Street Group launched the program with great success in Kentucky in 2013, replicating it in Hawaii in 2014, North Carolina and Tennessee in 2015 and Utah and Arizona to start this 2017 school year.
“Being informed and making a difference,” Powell said. “We owe it to our students to advocate the absolute best learning opportunities for them.”
Powell joins 28 Kentucky State Teacher Fellows and thousands of teachers across the state to better inform policy design and implementation.
“As teachers, we know best how our students learn, it is time to speak up to drive effective Education Policy,” Powell said.
Fellows across the state have had the opportunity to drive professional learning among their peers, conduct focus groups, design regional and state teacher leadership induction conferences and generate local and state solutions to common problems of practice. Fellows like Powell will have the opportunity to explore policy topics with teachers across Marshall County and use the results to further impact student learning locally and throughout the state.
“Teachers design classroom policies every day that create conditions for student learning,” Brad Clark, Kentucky State Teacher Fellowship director said. “Classroom practitioners are well equipped to shape local and state policy design and implementation. Teachers’ expertise and experience improves decision-making and professionalizes the teaching profession.”
