requirements within the education department. To combat these issues the education program has begun to engage the music students before they transition into the department to provide the students with the needed information to be prepared and successful once they transition. To address communication issues, the school has included a music education rep on the KEA-SP Committee (KEA- Student Program) to address any concerns from music education candidates, to communicate important school of education information, to assist in Praxis preparation, and make decisions that will positively impact all music education students. The music education program has graduated one student each of the past three years, but has four students in the EPP (Educator Preparation Program) preparing to enter Student Teaching and four students in the pipeline before entering the EPP. This past semester the music education students along with the Chair and Director of Student Teacher had a great meeting to clarify expectations and requirements for current and potential music education students. The current teacher shortage in music education is so significant that school districts are calling and waiting on our students to graduate to be hired on immediately as full-time educators even if they have not passed the Praxis II exam. The districts are placing the teachers in emergency certified positions with a few years allocated to pass the exam. The relationship with the music department has improved significantly over time and the department is dedicated to assist students in meeting the teaching needs of school districts within and out of the state. To improve enrollment and revenue numbers the school has placed a concerted effort on marketing the program to current and high school students.
The secondary programs have seen a decline in enrollment, of which is also the case for all higher education institutions at this current time. Many factors play a role in the decline of student interest, but one factor that weighs heavily on secondary programs is lack of visibility and interest within school academies, and lack of competitive pay for educators. Students in secondary areas often gravitate to non-education employment opportunities due to receiving much higher wages after graduation. There has been a stern effort by state and local officials to increase awareness and interest within STEM related areas of education, due to the vast amount of job openings across the state, region and nation. Within the SEHDCS, we have partnered with NCEE to assist in the redesign of the school to increase interest in STEM related teaching areas, and to reposition the school to offer a much a different learning approach than other education programs within the region. The issue at hand is that the NCEE initiative spearheaded by CPE has not lived up to the expectations outlined within various meetings before the process began. In the efforts to continue moving the programs forward, the school has partnered with area school districts and outside stakeholders to build interest and relationships to increase enrollment within secondary programs. Another aspect that the program is seeking to increase awareness is through developing cross curricular programming that will provide potential students a good overall viewpoint of the School of Education and all that it offers, of which may enhance the interest of those students to become educators. The plan has shown some growth and over time the school will analyze enrollment data to determine next steps making sure secondary programs are viable, and providing students with a high caliber education that enables them become change