Page 19 - BusinessWest February 19, 2024

“We happen to specialize in being the glue in the middle that helps pull it all together.”
puses in the form of assessments which basically say, ‘here’s a list of the things you told me what you want to do next year, and this is what it will cost each
of you.’ We have a very detailed formula about who pays for which amount, but the budget comes from the campuses.”
Clark, on the other hand, will focus mainly on the consortium’s broad portfo- lio of sponsored programs, which most recently includes grants from the Mel- lon Foundation for expanding the Native American and Indigenous Studies cur- ricula of its member campuses and for creation of a faculty leadership-develop- ment program, as well as a host of other programs:
• Paradigm Shift is a scholarship partnership program supported by a coalition of more than 30 school dis- tricts, universities, and community orga- nizations, aimed at helping Black and Latinx para-educators become licensed teachers.
“The focus is on creating a more
diverse teaching workforce,” Pfatteicher
said. “It takes people who are already in the classroom and pro- gresses them in their career. It isn’t something that one campus can do by itself, and even Five Colleges couldn’t do it alone, but our job is to get the right people in the room — superintendents, identified para-educators, teacher training programs, someone to manage grant funding ... it takes a village, if you will.”
“That’s a perfect example of the work being done here in a col- laborative way,” Clark added. “It goes beyond the five campuses and has a tremendous regional benefit.”
• The Center for East Asian Studies in Northampton supports K-12 teachers in learning, and then teaching about, East Asia. It
Participants in the Paradigm Shift program, which helps para- educators of color in local K-12 schools earn their teacher’s licenses.
(Photo by Ben Barnhart)
draws on the resources of the Five College member campuses to conduct seminars, institutes, conferences, and workshops.
• Learning in Retirement is a group of retirees, mainly from the field of education, who
BusinessWest
<< EDUCATION >>
FEBRUARY 19, 2024 19
provide peer education to
one another. “It started Five
Continued on page 31
>>