conferences with school districts, being intentional with recruiting students in Education Academies, and creating a pipeline of students to the program through our Dual Credit courses. To increase minority student enrollment in the program, we are hosting various online events to recruit and discuss strategies to remove systematic barriers that negatively impact minority students being enrolled and retained in our program. In addition, the EPP is in consistent conversations with the State Educational Department to remove barriers for minorities into the field of education. Furthermore, the EPP has updated the website and program material to provide students and stakeholders access/clarity into what the EPP offers, goals the EPP is seeking to achieve in the efforts of becoming a global education program and identifying the positive aspects that make the EPP unique. The EPP has not met its benchmarks for enrollment and Praxis pass scores, but through direct instruction, providing the appropriate resources, and enhancing recruitment efforts the EPP is forecasting to meet the set benchmarks in the near future. On a positive note, the EPP has met its benchmarks for student GPA, and Graduation, which are examples of the high level of instruction and advising taking place once the students get accepted into the EPP. The trends and data are shared through our Teacher Education Committee (TEC), All Majors Meetings (Students) and SEHDCS (Faculty Only) meetings. The TEC consists of EPP partners, stakeholders, faculty and student representatives that assist and make decisions on the overall development and operations within the EPP.

Our EPP program along with other offices on campus such as the Office of Institutional Research, The B.R.E.D.S Office for Enrollment and Scholarship, and Career Services and Professional Development continue to collaborate on a consistent basis to recruit and retain more teaching candidates. Thus, increasing the opportunity for the EPP to fill employment opportunities with EPP partner school districts. Projects such as the Alumni Research Project, Homecoming Alumni Celebration, and the creation of the EPP Advisory Board collected a small amount of data that was used to make adjustments to faculty teaching practice, marketing of the programs, relationship building practices with EPP partners, and the overall leadership of the EPP. The adjustments implemented for program development and growth are; more project based learning in EDU courses, developing culturally responsive teaching practices, Instituting portfolio's of student work, created student centered classroom learning models that mirror the classrooms of today, and implemented the use of various up to date online learning platforms to meet the needs of our students during the Pandemic and beyond. In addition, one of the most important adjustments within the EPP was to redesign the clinical field hours required by students to student teach, which involved providing clarity to field hour opportunities that were consistent throughout the EPP process. Moreover, making additional necessary adjustments to the lesson plan rubric used to assess teacher candidates performance, faculty instructional practices and mirror the requirements/expectations of teachers presently in the classroom. The EPP will continue reviewing instructional practices and the monitoring of student and EPP data for success and growth purposes. After further review of last year's data, we have also made some personnel changes within the EPP to reflect the standard and expectations of the university and program. The personnel changes within the EPP was an effort to shift the culture amongst faculty, staff and students. The EPP maintained the Coordinator of Clinical Placement & Student Teaching, and the Director of Data & Assessment, to continue forming high levels practices that organize and drive the EPP towards meeting its goals and expectations. Furthermore, opening up opportunities for scholarship and research within the EPP. In addition, the EPP hired two full time faculty members to provide students more course offerings and opportunities to acquire content from different perspectives of methodology. The implementation of Praxis review & practice in our Core courses, along with online learning/practice strategies have increased the percentage of students gaining admittance to student teaching on the undergraduate level, and graduate candidates gaining admittance to the MASPE program. All data measures can be located on the EPP's website and the EPSB website. All data and EPP information is shared with the Teacher Education Council which includes faculty and staff from Kentucky State University, teachers, and administrators from surrounding districts, and current students. In short, all stakeholder have access to each aspect of our program and are able to make suggestions for improvement on any aspect of our program. In addition, to the quarterly meetings with the TEC, the EPP used the insight of a consultant to provide important information on the direction of all programs within the EPP. The intel from the consultant will be used to strategically improve the learning experience of all students.

According to the 2020 data available through the Kentucky Center for Education and Workforce Statistics (KCEWS), 49.4% of the individuals who earned undergraduate degrees in Education from KSU are employed in their fields, after three years; the percentage decreases to 47.5%, after five years; and increases to 50%, after seven years. The statistics on our alumni with graduate degrees in Special Education are more encouraging, with 90% employed as teachers, after three years; 75% after five years; and 68% after seven years. The EPP has placed a heavy emphasis on collaborating with P-12 partners to determine ways to support teachers to continue their careers in education. Although our numbers are small, the efforts of the EPP and our partners have led to a 100% employment rate for the Fall 2019 & 2020 cohort of graduates. We are glad to continue the work of enhancing a program to better support the Commonwealth and nation.

Undergraduate Benchmarks:

Graduate Checkpoints: (Initial & Advanced)

Graduate Checkpoints: (Option 6)