2024 Elevating Education Magazine

In the mind of a child with autism, conversation can be overwhelming. But at Brigham Young University, students use an animated social skills coach to help kids, like Scout, find their strengths and have meaningful interactions that build their confidence.

Learning by study, by faith, and by experience, we strive to be among the exceptional universities in the world and an essential university for the world.

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Additional Contributors: SARAH

LAURA SEITZ, MEKENNA MALAN, MELANIE JONES, SAVANNAH BETH WITHERS TAYLOR

LETTER FROM THE FIRST LADY

Ask anyone to name a teacher who has impacted their lives and you are sure to get a quick answer and start an engaging conversation. Behind every successful adult is at least one educator who inspired, uplifted and pushed them to become who they are today. For me, it was my grandma.

I remember walking into her classroom as a four-year-old and feeling how much her students revered and adored her. She connected with each child, helping them to feel important and loved. Her voracious appetite for books exemplified a lifelong love of learning. I became a special education teacher because of her.

My second great educator example was my mom, who returned to the classroom after having 10 children. She had to recertify after being away from the profession for two decades, brushing off her skills and entering a classroom environment that looked very different. Years later, I realized how much courage it took for her to re-enter the field.

As the first lady of Utah, I knew I wanted to bring emotional resilience and wellness skills to the classroom, but I wasn’t exactly sure where to start. After listening to students, teachers and administrators, I realized I needed to help the teachers first. They needed to learn and practice mental health skills to pass on to their students. My Show Up for Teachers conference aims to do just that. It helps the helpers—our front-line educators—by equipping them with durable life skills, genuine support and encouragement from our community.

We all know teachers are important, which is why I ask you to join me in becoming an educator advocate—someone who recognizes the priceless contribution of teachers, supports them and champions the cause of improving their welfare. As business, community and political leaders, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to advocate for our educators and elevate their profession.

It takes the entire community to create a positive, supportive and compassionate environment for educators to do the job they are trained to do. Every effort we make to support them ensures the future success of our state where our children can become powerful, confident and compassionate leaders.

Please join me in elevating Utah education.

Abby Cox

First lady of Utah

A CONFERENCE FOCUSED ON THE WELL-BEING OF UTAH’S EDUCATORS

9 JULY 2024

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WE ARE HONORING COMPANIES THAT:

• Donate money/resources to teachers

• Spotlight teachers in community

• Organize care packages for students

• Support their local school districts

HONORS IN EDUCATION GALA

RECOGNIZING INDIVIDUALS & BUSINESSES WHO GIVE BACK

The future of our state — our economy, our communities, and our quality of life — depends upon our children. And our children depend on their teachers. In order for the future leaders of our state to be as healthy as possible, both mentally and physically, our teachers must have access to the best information and resources available to address their own needs. And that’s where Show Up for Teachers comes in.

If there’s one thing our efforts have taught me over the last two years, it’s that the community rallying for this cause has made a great difference! If you have participated with us in the past, please accept my deepest appreciation. If you’re joining us for the first time, get ready to jump into something special.

Sincerely,

Abby Cox

HOW CAN YOU SHOW UP FOR TEACHERS?

• Sign up to volunteer in a classroom or at a school

• Give your employees time off to volunteer

• Contribute to Donors Choose or an educator’s Amazon Wishlist

• Seek an educator’s input when making decisions that will impact them

• Nominate a teacher for the Honors in Education Gala by contacting Lynette Cloward lcloward@utahbusiness.com or visiting showupforteachers.com

• Support the Show Up for Teachers conference as a donor, sponsor, or vendor by contacting Dani Palmer dani@showuputah.org For more information contact Lynette Cloward lcloward@utahbusiness.com

ON ART AND ADVOCACY

How Whitehorse High School visual arts educator Georgiana Simpson is bridging the equity gap in arts education.

By Judd Bagley

Most friendships are the result of happy accidents. The bond that connects Georgiana Simpson and Anna Davis, on the other hand, was premeditated. The bond was forged in an Indianola, Utah, cabin during the annual retreat for Utah Art Educators Association (UAEA) board members, Davis recalls.

“I’d briefly met Georgiana once before and immediately knew she was someone I needed to get to know better. I also knew there were more people than rooms in that cabin, so some of us would need to find roommates. I walked right up and told her she was going to be mine,” Davis remembers, laughing. “We started talking and couldn’t stop.”

The pair had much to share because their stories were so vastly different. Their births are separated by more than two decades. Simpson has long hair she’s allowed to go gracefully gray, while Davis has short hair dyed fiery red. For Davis, the route to a career in arts education was as deliberate and directed as a career path can be, while Simpson practically stumbled into hers at an age when most begin thinking about retirement.

As significant as those differences are, their professional experiences contrast even more.

Davis teaches art at Orem’s Timpanogos High School, in the middle of Utah’s largest school district with a student body that is, according to data compiled by U.S. News & World Report, almost 70 percent white

and less than one percent Native American. Nineteen percent of students there qualify for free lunch.

Simpson teaches art at Whitehorse High School in Montezuma Creek, a town of about 300. Whitehorse sits within the borders of the Navajo Nation in one of Utah’s smallest school districts, with a student population that is 98 percent Native American and less than one percent white. Nearly 100 percent of students there qualify for free lunch, and only 30 percent have home internet access, according to Whitehorse Principal Kim Schaefer.

While no school is free of challenges, students at Whitehorse face more than their fair share.

“The vast majority of our kids have traumaimpacted brains, dealing with issues directly connected to their economic circumstances and starting at a very young age,” Simpson says. “When they come to school, there’s often the question of not just whether they’ve had breakfast, but whether they slept with roofs over their heads the night before.”

What Simpson and Davis do have in common—and what’s fueled this tight-knit

friendship—is a deeply shared commitment to advocate for arts education based on the belief that it elevates a student’s capacity to excel in every other subject.

The winding road to Montezuma Creek

Simpson’s interest in the intersection of artistic expression and Native American culture was kindled by her father, a Native Nations arts trader in Gallup, New Mexico.

“My dad worked with artists in different Native Nations, and I used to love going with him as he gathered rings, rugs and baskets,” Simpson recalls. “It was that experience that eventually brought me back to this part of the world.”

It would take her a while to make that return trip.

“I went to work for a Fortune 500 company in 1983, right out of university. That job took me to the Los Angeles area, but I knew it wasn’t for me,” Simpson says. “I realized it at a retirement party for a colleague when I found myself thinking, ‘I know I don’t want to be here in 30 years.’”

On New Year’s Day in 1990, Simpson left L.A. and returned to the Southwest, where she launched her own Native Nations arts trading business. Ten years later, she established a small arts-focused summer camp for local kids, hoping to make it unlike anything one would expect to find in such a remote area.

“That little camp grew into 100 kids we were hauling in from a 900-square-mile area reaching to the Colorado and Arizona state lines. I still have a hard time thinking about the liability issues we exposed ourselves to,” Simpson laughs. “It was great, but after five years, I felt it wasn’t enough. So, I advocated for an after-school program offering longer

and more consistent arts education for local children.”

With that, Simpson became an informal art teacher. Around the same time, she was asked to serve on a board trying to tackle the challenge of providing remote college access to local high school graduates, which was then a much more daunting and expensive problem to solve than it is today. Simpson’s job was oversight of the grant writing process. That experience connected her with the leadership at Whitehorse and planted a seed.

“In 2015, I attended a presentation in Monument Valley on alternate licensure routes for teachers. I was aware of a visual arts position opening up at Whitehorse, and I just knew that was where my path had led. That night, I sat down with my husband and told him what I was going to do next,” Simpson says. She was well into her 50s at the time. “That’s my journey to becoming a professional arts educator, and it’s been a lovely one.”

A master of arts in teaching

Seemingly never content to sit still, Simpson then began scanning the horizon in search of the next challenge. The one she settled on was an advanced degree.

“I’d been trying for years to get my master’s, but back then, it was not available to people living in such remote parts of the state,” Simpson says. Little did she know that at the time, Beth Krensky and Kelby McIntyreMartinez, both professors of art education at the University of Utah (the U), were working to change that.

Krensky left Utah shortly after graduating high school, returning 19 years later. After earning an undergraduate degree in art and two advanced degrees in education while she was away, Krensky aimed to apply all her training by creating a master of teaching fine arts program at the U—a several-year-long process she undertook with the help of McIntyre-Martinez. The pair’s next challenge was to recruit students to fill the inaugural class.

“As soon as Beth realized Georgiana was interested, she got so excited. She looked at me and said, ‘We need her to be a part of this,’” McIntyre-Martinez says. “Georgiana made that first cohort of professional arts educators so strong. Hers was the test group, and the insight she provided was invaluable, particularly when it came to ideas for better accommodating students living in rural areas, which this program specifically intends to accomplish.”

Typically, students pursuing advanced degrees in art take classes dedicated to their medium. Painters study painting with other painters while dancers study dance with other dancers. In contrast, those pursuing a Master of Arts in Teaching at the U are artists of all backgrounds studying education with other educators.

“We ended up with the most beautifully diverse representation of humans in different phases of their careers and lives and art forms all coming together,” McIntyre-Martinez says. “Georgiana’s personality had her constantly saying things like, ‘I never thought of using theater that way; I’m going to do it!’ Then I’d get a long email from her saying, ‘It worked!’”

McIntyre-Martinez says this “yes, and” trait is core to Simpson’s personality and is vital for reaching younger generations.

“Students these days don’t just want to study one art form at a time. They want to combine them and see what happens. Georgiana is

“

all about exploring with them to see what’s possible,” McIntyre-Martinez says. “The way she’s grown, using technology to mix media and film and theater in her classes, is profound. I’m constantly asking her how she pulls it off, and she humbly says, ‘I figured out what I could, and then I’m not above asking my students for help with the rest.’”

Applied academia

Schaefer feels Simpson’s impact is greatest in her special ability to understand what challenging new academic concepts are being introduced in classrooms down the hall, finding artistic applications presented in ways engineered to lead to the all-important “aha” moment every educator craves.

“The way Georgiana takes her knowledge of art and meshes it with other disciplines or skills accomplishes something so important I can’t say enough about it,” Schaefer says. “For example, in math, they might be learning about proportional relationships, and down in the art room, those same scholars are learning the artistic principles of proportional relationships in perspective by taking images of a certain size and drawing them to a different scale. When students can apply knowledge gained in one domain to another, this not only means more practice but—maybe more importantly—makes the knowledge more relevant. Her ability to creatively do this over and over is astounding.”

When [the majority of our students] come to school, there’s often the question of not just whether they’ve had breakfast, but whether they slept with roofs over their heads the night before.

Schaefer is quick to concede that she faces stiff headwinds when recruiting teachers to a school as remote and challenging as Whitehorse. She’s grateful that Simpson’s instinct for improving the efficacy of other teachers goes beyond complementing what they’re teaching—it also impacts how they teach.

“We’ve got a reputation for taking whoever is willing to work here and helping them build the skills they need to succeed, and on top of everything else, Georgiana is mentoring two new teachers,” Schaefer says. “Her story and the perspective she brings have improved how we onboard new educators a hundredfold.”

Not long after they bonded in Indianola, Davis invited Simpson to Orem to observe how Alpine School District approaches art education. Given the distance separating them, Davis wondered whether the invitation would be accepted—though only briefly. Davis reports that not only did Simpson immediately commit and make the trek, but she made it at least three times, accompanied by curious colleagues for the final two visits.

In addition to new approaches to pedagogy, one of Simpson’s key takeaways was a determination to advocate for an education experience in the resource-poor San Juan School District that more closely resembles that of resource-rich Alpine.

“Georgiana has a passion for equity. She doesn’t just shrug and say, ‘We don’t have the budget.’ Sometimes the fight for resources seems like more than it’s worth, but not to her,” Davis says. “She believes passionately that every one of her Navajo students deserves an educational experience equal to that of any other kid in Utah. She is doing extraordinary things to benefit that vibrant culture in a remote corner of the state that often goes overlooked, advocating for arts everywhere and elevating education for all educators.” //

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TYTAN SMITH, 2023 Student of the Year

During

Think back to your favorite teacher. We all have at least one. Mine was Mrs. Collier. She taught AP U.S. History while singing, dancing around the room and narrating vivid stories. She loved unconditionally and saw limitless potential in her students. I still remember some of the history, but most importantly, I remember what she taught me about the power of being myself and making a difference in my corner of the world.

Sydnee Dickson, the state superintendent of public instruction for the Utah State Board of Education, feels the same way about her teachers. Dickson’s grandma was her first teacher in elementary school. “Watching what she did really set me on a path of wanting to be a lifelong learner,” Dickson says. “Learning is fun and exciting to me because of the way I started out in school.” For some, that inspiration is the motivation for becoming a teacher. “We all have had a teacher that affected our lives,” says Devin Rusch, a beloved welding instructor at Clearfield High School. “We want to do the same thing for other people.”

IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO BECOME A TEACHER

Utah’s educational professionals encourage others to brave the challenges and become teachers after college—or even after a career.

By Dara Anderson Johnson

Beware the “implementation dip”

While an inspirational profession, teaching infamously comes with its hardships. “The first years of teaching are extremely difficult,” Dickson says.

Rusch taught every other day while still welding at night during his first year as a teacher. On the days he didn’t teach, Rusch would get off his welding job at 2 a.m., head to the school and work on remodeling the shop so it would be fit for students to work in.

Ryan Rarick, an education pathway teacher at Career Tech High School, was similarly busy at the start of his career: coaching the basketball and volleyball teams, teaching AP classes and building up the concurrent enrollment program. “To be totally honest, I burned myself out,” he says.

Currently working on his Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction, Rarick discusses the “implementation dip”

many new teachers face. The researched phenomenon happens when people start something new, only to face the harsh reality of being worse at their new endeavor than at whatever they did before. “That’s what a lot of new teachers face,” Rarick says.

But Dickson says, “When you face something hard, it’s always coupled with lessons learned and silver linings.” Those lessons build better teachers. “You may not see it day to day, but there is a ripple effect you’re having on your whole community,” agrees Tabitha Pacheco, the director of education programs at Hope Street Group and a special education public information officer for the Utah State Board of Education.

Luckily, new teachers aren’t alone. Utah has structures to encourage and develop new teachers—such as mentorship programs. “Having a mentor … is paramount to making sure that we can retain our young teachers,” Dickson says.

Rarick’s mentors helped him overcome the implementation dip and gain confidence in his skills. “I just felt a ton of confidence in myself and had good feedback from my instructional coaches,” he says.

Inspired by his coaches’ support, Rarick spent a couple of years mentoring others and passing along the support he was given. He often focused on helping fellow educators “sift through all the things they have to think about, identify the most crucial things, get good at those and set and reach goals.”

Passionate about supporting teachers, Pacheco, who also helped found the Utah Teacher Fellows program, explains, “My whole job is elevating the profession!” After teaching in special education programs for 10 years, Pacheco became a national teacher fellow. While still teaching in her own classroom, the role had her traveling across the nation to meet with other teachers about education challenges, visit other states’ departments of education, learn more about the national teaching landscape and bring her findings back to Utah. After her fellowship ended, Pacheco worked with Dickson to create the Utah Teacher Fellows program to train teachers to be leaders in their communities.

That support makes a difference. “The challenge stays the same,” Rarick says, but with time and assistance, “your ability to teach gets better. You gain perspective on the crucial things.”

Perks and places for change

Still, education is not a perfect system. “It’s really easy to point out issues in education,” Pacheco says. “But if you’re just complaining, you’re not making a difference.” Pacheco’s years as a teacher fellow were “a big shift” in her career as she

got to see things from “a much broader lens” and felt empowered to change things.

Rarick had a similar experience when he discovered that a disproportionately small percentage of students of color were enrolled in his school’s honors, AP and CE courses. Instead of sitting back and lamenting the education system’s failures, Rarick gathered student recommendations from teachers of younger grades, wrote personal invitations to the advanced courses, and involved the assistant principal in meetings with students. The representation percentage rose in those courses and continues increasing even though Rarick moved to another school. “I saw that change the way that students thought about themselves,” Rarick says.

He is now working on a similar project to improve representation percentages among teachers by recruiting students of color into his school’s education pathway—a program designed to inspire and prepare students to become teachers.

There are problems in education, but teachers are not helpless byproducts of a

failed system. They are agents of change. “Schools are the hearts of our communities, and teachers are the leaders,” Pacheco says.

Along with the ability to encourage and enact true change, teaching has many other perks. Likely the most well-known bonus—teachers get all holidays off, not to mention seasonal breaks.

In addition to that, teacher salaries in Utah have recently risen significantly. In 2023, Utah legislators approved an annual $4,200 pay raise for licensed educators, with an additional $1,800 in benefits, and educator salary adjustments based on weighted pupil unit growth. Some Utah school districts are even paying first-year, licensed teachers over $60,000.

Teaching jobs also provide stability and security, even during pandemics and recessions. “The pandemic … was probably the most challenging era of education in several decades,” Rarick admits. “But I did not have to stress about whether my job would still exist post-pandemic or if I

would get laid off and not have an income source.” In fact, all Utah public school teachers have pension coverage, a benefit almost unheard of in today’s economy.

And the opportunities for career growth and leadership as a teacher are endless. “Sometimes you get that mentality of, ‘Oh, I’m just a teacher,’” Pacheco says. “But I think teachers can do anything!” In her education career alone, Pacheco has developed tangible skills in technology, communication, leadership, project management, nonprofit organization, grant writing, budgeting, legislation and more.

Become a teacher now, during or even after your career

For those who are drawn to teaching but don’t want to sacrifice time away from their careers to go back to school, there are alternate routes to becoming a teacher. Utah allows individuals employed in approved Utah school districts or charter schools to enroll in an Educator Preparation Program designed to help people get their teaching licenses.

Rusch followed a similar path when he started teaching at Roy High School. He taught welding under a provisional license so he could get an immediate start as a teacher while simultaneously earning his official teaching license. Teachers from that path offer students a much-needed perspective from the professional world.

“If schools don’t have professionals teaching these kids, I don’t know how else they’re going to get that knowledge. Without industry professionals in schools, the world would really struggle,” Rusch says.

There is also the option of becoming a paraeducator, which only requires obtaining

an associate degree and passing an exam. “There is such a need for paraeducators in our schools, and this is a great way to work with students and make a difference in the community,” Pacheco says.

In a world where YouTube and AI educate 24/7, some would argue that the need for teachers is becoming obsolete. But there is a nuanced aspect of education that no robot could replace. “These kids have all the information available at their fingertips,” Rusch says. “But teachers give kids a chance to see how they can apply that information.”

Beyond the necessary human touch in actual learning, teachers build emotional fortitude in students. “The ability to love and value students can’t be replaced by artificial intelligence,” Pacheco says. Dickson reflects on moments of “holding [kids] together” when they were facing difficult situations. “The kids need us,” Rusch says. “A lot of kids come from broken homes, and they need a source of stability in their lives. I don’t just care for them as students; I care for them for the rest of their lives.”

Rarick depicts teachers as the threshold guardians in the “hero’s journey” archetype, the ones who stand guard at the border of

the known and the unknown. “Teachers get to be that for students,” Rarick says. “We open the gate and push them through when they’re ready. We are advocates, and students carry that with them into their lives.” Without those guardians, students would never be able to glimpse the level of potential that can only come from stepping into the unknown.

“My goal in life is to build capacity in others,” Dickson says. “That’s the role of a teacher: to help young people see the possibilities for themselves and give them the tools to be able to succeed in achieving their goals and dreams.”

The value and impact of a profession like no other

Not only do teachers impact students, but students also have a significant impact on teachers. For Pacheco, running into one of her former special education students in a grocery store was “a really rewarding moment” as she got to see them as a “successful, happy and thriving” adult. Rarick laughs when former students still send him memes inspired by “The Great Gatsby,” a book he shared with his English classes, years after the fact. Rusch loves

hearing from students who reach out long after leaving his class to tell him about finding a great welding job and to thank him for giving them a start.

But the rewards of teaching don’t always come so far down the road. “When I walk the halls and kids yell out to me, ‘Hey Rusch!’ that’s the best part for me—knowing that I’ve had an impact on these kids. It’s fun to be part of these kids’ lives because I want them to be the best they can be, and I want the kids to know that,” Rusch says.

“When we value teachers, we get better outcomes for our students. And that takes all of us,” Dickson says. “As a state and as communities, when we lean in to do everything we can to support our teachers, we impact generations of kiddos.” For some, that will mean becoming teachers and committing to push through the implementation dip. Utah is currently losing 45-50 percent of educators in their first five years of teaching. Dickson is working to combat that loss by advocating for supportive leadership, good working conditions and pay, and a positive school culture and climate. But she can’t do that alone.

Current teachers, potential teachers and community members can take action by finding other people who are “solutions oriented,” Pacheco says. “Be involved in what’s happening. Know who is representing you. Go to the school board meetings. Vote for people to represent you who you think will do what’s best for your student and your family values,” Pacheco urges.

After all, our Utah teachers are worth it.

“Every day, I am inspired by the teachers I work with, almost to tears,” Pacheco says. “They should all be teacher of the year. They are exceptional. If people have questions about Utah education, they should go visit our schools. They will see some really amazing things happening.” //

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Select Health obeys federal civil rights laws. We do not treat you differently because of your race, color, ethnic background or where you come from, age, disability, sex, religion, creed, language, social class, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and/or veteran status. This information is available for free in other languages and alternate formats by contacting Select Health Medicare: 855-442-9900 (TTY: 711) Select Health: 800-538-5038.

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注意：如果您使用繁體中文，您可以免費獲得語言援助服務。請致電

Select Health obeys federal civil rights laws. We do not treat you differently because of your race, color, ethnic background or where you come from, age, disability, sex, religion, creed, language, social class, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and/or veteran status. This information is available for free in other languages and alternate formats by contacting Select Health Medicare: 855-442-9900 (TTY: 711) / Select Health: 800-538-5038.

ATENCIÓN: Si habla español, tiene a su disposición servicios gratuitos de asistencia lingüística. 注意：如果您使用繁體中文，您可以免費獲得語言援助服務。請致電

ATENCIÓN: Si habla español, tiene a su disposición servicios gratuitos de asistencia lingüística.

注意：如果您使用繁體中文，您可以免費獲得語言援助服務。請致電

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A LESSON IN COMMUNITY INVESTMENT

A culture of giving back leads many businesses across the state to support Utah’s schools in impactful ways.

By Jack Dodson

In Utah, businesses aren’t just entities of commerce; they are integral proponents of a healthy, collaborative community. Utah enterprises also showcase an unwavering belief in the power of education.

Companies like Beehive Meals, for example, donate food to public schools. In November 2022, the Utah Jazz partnered with Mark Miller Subaru to donate almost $30,000 to renovate West Lake STEM Junior High’s computer lab. The Utah Adopt-A-School program exists to connect businesses with schools for sponsorship and learning opportunities.

Through these examples and many more, Utah’s volunteerism culture shows up as strong support for its education sector.

Shared success

The Utah Adopt-A-School program launched two years ago and uses an online portal to connect for-profit companies with schools that might have intersecting needs. Some of the program’s “success stories” predate the initiative and helped establish the idea—for example, Chevron operates a refinery near Salt Lake City and routinely donates money to the nearby Davis School District.

MarketStar is also featured for its role in creating programs like the Skill Up High School Sales Skills Challenge, which focuses on teaching teens sales and encouraging a career in technology. The company’s Pack the Pantry program, meanwhile, provides basic groceries and food to students in need.

“Based on the principles of volunteerism and service, partnerships with Utah’s education system ensure the collective success of communities, industries and individuals in this inclusive, proactive industry-with-education approach,” the Adopt-A-School website reads.

In just a few easy steps, companies can sign up and browse a list of local schools’ specific needs. After schools approve connections with businesses, the two can begin working together to create lasting benefits.

Another company utilizing the program is the Salt Lake City-based railroad company Stadler U.S. Inc. In partnership with Salt Lake City School District, Salt Lake Foundation, Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) and Talent Ready Utah, Stadler “offers a youth apprenticeship adopted from the Swiss model of apprenticeship,” according to the Utah Adopt-A-School website. Students from Salt Lake City School District split their time between the classroom and Stadler, earning credit toward an Associate of Applied Science degree from SLCC. Stadler also provides students with mentoring and a system of support.

“With Utah Adopt-A-School, businesses have a unique opportunity to utilize Utah’s education system as a tool for workforce development,” reads a February 2022 press release from Gov. Spencer Cox’s office announcing the plan.

Giving through food

Beehive Meals—a Layton, Utah-based company that preps, seals and delivers frozen freezer meals—picks a new school each month and donates food to all of its teachers, staff, office staff and janitors.

“We’ve had PTAs reach out to us in the past, and our meals fit really well with teachers. [They’re] able to put something in [the crockpot] in the morning before they go and work a long day,” says Beehive Meals Co-Founder and CEO Allyse Jackson.

As they were running that program, Jackson says, Utah first lady Abby Cox got in touch about her Show Up for Teachers program and opportunities to collaborate. At the Show Up for Teachers conference in July 2023, Beehive Meals donated 100 sets of five meals. They also held a raffle for schools to win a set of meals for each educator and staff member in the entire school. In total, she says, they donated about $200,000 to 18 schools in 2023.

Beehive Meals is now launching a charitable effort called One Big Family, which will encourage other corporations and foundations to magnify their efforts and reach more schools in the coming years.

“As a small business where my husband and I are the owners, we own 100 percent of the company, so we don’t have to go through several layers to make decisions,” Jackson says. “So it’s really been

something we want to do … that’s the cool part of owning a small business.”

Jackson notes that the pandemic helped her business grow while the education sector struggled. That prompted some of her desire to give back and support teachers within her community.

“Teachers and schools have been so negatively impacted by the pandemic and COVID-19,” Jackson points out, noting that her own kids experienced challenges due to lockdowns. “We’re able to kind of see that firsthand with the teachers, so it’s something that we just kind of feel like we want to be connected to.”

The road to higher education

This year marks 20 years since the Success in Education nonprofit launched as a project of the Garffs, a family famous for their car dealerships across the West. The project aims to help high school students create and follow a game plan for

after their higher education concludes.

Since its creation in 2004, Success in Education has grown from being a $500,000 organization in 2012 to operating a $3.6 million budget in 2022, with several key programs focusing on different areas of student interest and needs.

Success in Education programs impact schools across the state, according to a map on their website. The Road to Success program incentivizes daily reading. Another of their programs, Keys to Success, aims to provide high school students with what they need to apply for college and meet important deadlines—all through an app.

Both programs take advantage of a critical concept in education: gamifying the process.

“We have about 140,000 downloads on the app. Students participate in a self-reflection interest survey, and the app tells them which careers would be good for them,” says Success in Education VP Erin TrenbeathMurray. “There’s also a ‘reality check’ that asks if you want a house and a cellphone

and how much you would need to make.”

After that, the app tells users which universities offer the majors they’re most interested in. It also allows them to apply for FAFSA directly through the app.

“Every time they complete a step, they get points, and every month, they get rewards from the points. It could be a movie or Chick-fil-A,” Trenbeath-Murray says, pointing out that local businesses often donate, giving the program highly impactful connections to the community.

About two years ago, Trenbeath-Murray says, the Success in Education team amped up its incentives, got rid of glitches and did focus groups to improve the Keys to Success application. They also started partnering with the Utah College Application Month in October, attending events at many Utah high schools to help encourage students to apply to college.

A 2021 annual report from the Utah System of Higher Education noted the success of this collaboration, stating the commissioner’s office partnered with Keys to Success to

develop a college application checklist embedded in the app that provided students with an interactive way to navigate the college selection process. According to the report, this resulted in the creation of 5,218 new accounts in October 2021.

The partnership with the state led to a major growth period for Success in Education. “Then it just skyrocketed,” Trenbeath-Murray says.

Beyond the classroom

Success in Education programs don’t stop there. The Ken Garff Esports program creates esports clubs in schools where students can join and connect their academic work to gaming, participate in tournaments across the state and meet others. The program focuses on encouraging students to pursue careers in computer programming and other forms of digital media.

The foundation also holds small, oneoff events like STEM fairs that promote science and technology education among students. There have been fly fishing

events encouraging students to reconnect with nature, Code to Success programs emphasizing computer science and workshops promoting leadership skills. The impact has been large enough that the Utah System of Higher Education has included its partnership with the foundation as a major focus in past strategic plans for growth and access, naming the Keys to Success app as an important driver for access to students.

The final program run by Success in Education is Women Who Succeed, which partners young high school- and college-aged women with adult mentors to help them navigate their education and early careers.

“Our No. 1 priority was to get high school young women on a track to not only go to college but also to complete college,” Trenbeath-Murray says of the program’s origins. “We’ve set up 55 internships and have just over 700 or 800 young women that have been mentored, all of whom went to college and had passing grades.”

Trenbeath-Murray says she’s also seen major growth in adult participation. Today, the program has 165 mentors—a number that far surpasses the expected 10-15.

The program also focuses intensely on communities outside major economic hubs. Advertising Women Who Succeed through the Keys to Success application, early access to program applications goes out to students in rural and Indigenous schools before being made available to young women statewide later on.

“If we as businesswomen in the community can help mentor, guide, lead and love these young women, we all succeed,” says Laura Peifer, a Women Who Succeed mentor. //

The earliest memory first lady Abby Cox can recall is a visit to her grandmother’s thirdgrade classroom in Layton, Utah. School had ended for the day, and in the absence of students, everything in the empty classroom felt larger than life.

Throughout her childhood and adolescence, Cox’s mother would also work as an educator at Mount Pleasant Middle School and, later, the elementary school.

Watching her grandmother and mother teach and becoming close friends with three of her peers who had Down syndrome eventually paved the way for Cox’s future trajectory. When it came time for Cox to decide what to study in college, she was inspired by her family’s legacy of teaching and her three friends. She pursued a degree in special education with a dual emphasis on early childhood and severe disabilities at Utah State University.

FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE CAPITOL

The why and how behind Utah first lady Abby Cox’s mission to reform educator wellness.

By Heather Bergeson

After completing her student teaching and earning her degree and certification, Cox shifted her focus to her family and became a full-time mom and homemaker. In addition to helping teach her four children at home, Cox committed one hour every week to volunteering in her children’s classrooms.

Cox’s involvement in education throughout her life has given her experience and perspective as a student, teacher and parent. Now, as first lady of Utah, Cox is in a unique position to make a difference for educators.

After Gov. Spencer Cox was elected, Abby had the opportunity to develop her own first lady initiatives. For inspiration, she turned to her passions and created the four-pronged “Show Up” initiative.

“The overarching goal and mission of Show Up is really creating empathy, connection, a sense of community and a sense of belonging for everyone,” Cox says.

In the early phases of developing her initiative, Cox knew she wanted education to be one of her focuses. “We wanted to figure out how we could teach essential emotional intelligence skills and deliver valuable mental health resources to our students,” she says. “But when we talked to teachers, the answer was universal: ‘We need this ourselves. We need help with emotional intelligence. We need help with our own mental health.’”

With this feedback in mind, Abby shifted her focus to educator wellness. “Before we can teach these skills to the kids, we have to help the helpers,” she says. “As a state, we will be in dire trouble if we do not take care of our educators. They are the people who are training, teaching and inspiring our future leaders. We’re in trouble if they don’t have the skills and tools and resources to stay in their jobs, to be supported in their jobs, and to be successful in their jobs.”

As a consistent parent volunteer in her children’s schools, Cox was able to see

firsthand where the teachers were struggling and how much support they lacked. Now, Cox is implementing the knowledge and experience she gained from her time as a volunteer to inform her work as the first lady.

“While I’m here, I want to make a difference,” Cox says. “I want to bring people together that can make a positive change for educators. I want to be a voice for teachers. I hope they are seeing their voice being reflected and amplified through me and our team, giving them a sense of their own power.”

Cox determined that her educator initiative would focus on disseminating wellness tools and resources to teachers. She also wanted to reinforce appreciation and respect for teaching as a profession. With these goals in mind, the Show Up for Teachers conference was born.

Show Up for Teachers

Utah teacher retention rates are below the national average, with 45 to 50 percent of educators leaving the profession within the first five years. Teachers leave so quickly because of emotional exhaustion, burnout and job-specific stressors. Teaching is already a demanding profession, but without the proper support, it becomes nearly impossible. Cox is using this conference to distribute resources to educators and demonstrate respect for the profession. This way, more teachers will receive the help they need to thrive in their classrooms.

As part of the Show Up for Educator Wellness initiative, Abby and her team launched the Show Up for Teachers conference in 2022. Show Up for Teachers invites over 2,000 educators from across the state to attend a free, one-day conference where they learn valuable skills and make meaningful connections.

The conference features renowned keynote speakers in addition to a diverse selection of over 50 breakout sessions on topics such as stress management and conflict resolution. In addition to these sessions, a wide range of Utah-based companies show up to express their appreciation for teachers with gifts and as vendors in the “Show [Up] Room.”

The Show Up for Teachers conference provides a place for educators to access valuable knowledge and resources while creating networks that promote beneficial education policies.

At the 2023 conference, Cox brought together policymakers, business and community leaders, and higher education professionals during a breakfast before the conference began. Cox explains that the goal of the breakfast was to “promote educators, show why this kind of event is important and why we need to listen to teachers tell their stories.”

The conference provides a unique forum for policymakers to talk directly with educators who are in the classroom every day. There is often a disconnect between what’s happening in schools and what’s being decided on Capitol Hill. Giving teachers the opportunity to share their experiences provides legislators with valuable insights that help inform education policies.

Because Utah’s legislative session happens in the middle of the school year, it’s often difficult for teachers to influence education bills. However, the conference is held during the summer when teachers aren’t as busy in their classrooms. This is a valuable time for educators to connect with legislators and make a difference in policy. Throughout the conference, there are dedicated times when policymakers are encouraged to have conversations with the teachers.

“It’s been so powerful for a third-grade teacher to sit and talk to a legislator about their experiences and why this bill is bad,

or this bill is good,” Cox says. “It’s really empowering for them, and I truly believe it’s going to lead to and has led to better policies for educators, and that means better policies for our students.”

Creating an education network

Ultimately, Cox’s Show Up initiative is centered around connection. In addition to the Show Up for Teachers conference, Cox is taking advantage of her unique position as first lady to create networks throughout the realm of Utah education. With her contacts in the political world and her work with nonprofits and businesses, Cox and her team can act as a nexus for education reform.

“I’m happy that, as a whole, we’ve found these really positive voices that want to make a positive change,” Cox says of her partnerships. As she’s worked with organizations such as the Utah Teacher Fellows and Parent Teacher Association, Cox has been able to assess the needs of teachers and advocate for them with legislators and business owners.

There will always be disagreements when it comes to education and education policies, but Cox is committed to helping these diverse groups come together and “disagree better” in order to promote productive collaboration.

“On all sides, these groups are so passionate about improving education,” Cox says. “They want to contribute, they want to build, they don’t want to tear down. That’s the kind of network that we’re creating. One that works together, disagrees better and finds common ground.”

In addition to these groups, Utah families and communities play an essential role in this network. Cox encourages parents

and community members to volunteer in classrooms at their local schools when possible. “Teachers need your support,” Cox says. “If you can just go in for one hour a week or half an hour a week, it makes a difference.”

It’s also crucial for the community to get involved with their local legislators and school board members. Whether a community member has school-aged children or not, they can help promote or discourage education policies. When a bill is going through, listening to teachers’ opinions and helping amplify their voices with the policymakers can make an immense impact. Be an informed voter by talking to educators and school board members about what is best for schools, teachers and students.

Inspiring the next generation of educators

As part of her initiative, Cox has prioritized visiting higher education institutions across the state to discuss how they are preparing future teachers for the workforce. During these visits, she talks with faculty and staff about how their programs can better prepare teachers for the realities of being an educator and how they can provide college students studying education with the tools necessary to succeed. Cox also hopes that as teachers receive more resources and support, more students will choose teaching as their profession.

“We need to inspire our pre-service teachers and even our high school students who are trying to decide what they want to do,” Cox says. “We need the best and the brightest to be the next generation of educators. We have a goal to ensure there are robust pre-service education programs in each one of our universities and that those programs are adaptable and can fit the needs of our students.”

Through creating more robust programs and preparing future educators for success, Cox hopes to empower teachers in their profession and bolster respect and dignity for the profession of education.

“The impact a teacher can have on an individual student is felt for generations, so why would we not want the best and brightest humans as teachers?” Cox asks. “As students see their educators being supported and see the narrative surrounding the profession shift to be more positive and respected, more students will be drawn to that.”

Cox’s message to educators is, “Thank you for showing up for Utah’s kids. Now let us SHOW UP for you!” As Cox prepares for the next few years and beyond, she hopes the impact of her initiatives will live on.

“I know this is a finite time for me,” Cox says. “What I would like to see in each of my focus areas in the initiative is that they become self-sustaining—that these programs and the things we’ve established can move forward on their own in the education space.”

Through empowering educators and teaching them essential skills to be successful, Cox is creating a shift that will impact and improve schools, communities and the state of Utah as a whole. During her 2023 Show Up for Teachers conference speech, Cox told educators, “My pledge to you today: As long as I am in this position, and forever afterward, I will work relentlessly on your behalf. I will never stop reminding anyone who will listen to me that you matter, that you need to be heard, that you are responsible for building the next generation of powerful leaders, hopeful warriors, and brilliant humans, and that it is our responsibility to elevate your efforts in every way possible.” //

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT USING AI IN THE CLASSROOM

Experts and educators have slowly come to a consensus—students must be prepared.

By Austin Facer

Alex Lawrence has seen a few major technological innovations in his day: the World Wide Web, the smartphone and electric vehicles, to name a few. For Lawrence and many others, the latest jaw-dropping piece of tech has been the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and the products that bring AI to the everyday consumer.

Lawrence had a profound split reaction when he first tried ChatGPT in December of 2022.

“I had two almost simultaneous thoughts,”

he says. “The first one was, ‘This is unbelievable. It is amazing that they’ve made something so easy to use and so powerful.”

Then, the educator in him—Lawrence teaches courses in professional sales at Weber State University—realized, “This is the greatest cheating tool I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Lawrence has told this story a few times to various local and national publications, including the Wall Street Journal, CNN, News Nation and Forbes. He was immediately aware of the same concern

many educators had while first regarding AI and ChatGPT, but decided not to run from implementing AI in his classroom. Instead, he fully embraced it.

“I’m absolutely pushing them, and in some cases, requiring them on a couple of assignments to use ChatGPT and other AI tools on their work,” Lawrence says of his students. “We help them get good at it so they can use the tools in a way that isn’t cheating—it’s augmenting.”

Education experts agree on AI

It’s not hard to imagine that many other educators felt the same way as Lawrence when they first encountered ChatGPT, recognizing it as the greatest cheating tool yet.

However, now that the initial shock has worn off and as AI tools become more and more commonplace, many agree that AI will only proliferate even further. The top minds in education now praise the power of AI, just like Lawrence.

In July, Harvard’s Graduate School of Education published an article titled “Embracing Artificial Intelligence in the Class,” claiming that “generative AI tools can reflect our failure of imagination, and that is when the real learning starts.”

One of the Harvard lecturers quoted in the article, Houman Harouni, stated that educators need to “help the next generation face the reality of the world and develop instruments and ways of navigating this reality with integrity.”

Ignoring AI, especially as the rest of the world does not, would be a grave mistake by educators. Harouni and Lawrence say the trick is to teach students to use it positively and productively.

“Where we want to get to is a place where you’re dancing with it, dancing with robots,” Harouni said in the article.

Blazing new trails with AI

Combining technology and education— and putting both in the form of a game—is nothing new. Former students of a certain age will remember inserting floppy disks of Oregon Trail into now-primitive machines in their elementary school computer lab. After that, educational CD-ROMs became commonplace at school and at home.

AI can provide the next generation of education and game-driven learning.

Graham Bany, who teaches high school English in the Jordan School District, has found a way to build his own textbased role-playing games, much like Oregon Trail, using AI and a Utah-based company, SchoolAI.

In the AI “Spaces”—as SchoolAI calls them—Bany’s students are taken through a “choose your own adventure” style game, imagining a dystopian future for a business industry they’ve discussed in class. The game gets the students’ imaginations churning and prepares them to write an essay on their research and the events taking place in the Space.

“I give them a home that’s really a prewriting activity in disguise that then leads into the actual academic work,” Bany says. “It’s part of the way I run my classroom, creating unique experiences that are meaningful, that allow the kids to have fun, but also still have that learning twist.”

Ryan Holdaway, chief of staff at SchoolAI’s Lehi office, calls Bany a “top-10 teacher in the country as far as using AI.” But, he explains, Bany is an AI leader because of his thoughtful implementation of the technology in the classroom, not any tech-savviness itself.

SchoolAI, Holdaway says, is focused on making AI extremely approachable for students and teachers.

“Our platform strives to remove the complexity of using an AI tool in the classroom,” Holdaway says. “You don’t have to be a programmer or anything like that in order to leverage these tools. We want to give simple, easy ways for teachers to use the technology in their classroom because we think that it’s really powerful.”

How to best utilize AI

Not long ago, the internet turned the grind of homework on its head. Going to the library was replaced with going online. Lawrence believes entering a prompt into ChatGPT is the next version of this.

Endlessly patient

When AI is implemented in a classroom, it doesn’t matter how many times it takes to get a lesson across to a student. Holdaway calls AI’s limitless ability to rephrase concepts or suggest new ways of thinking as “endlessly patient.”

Something that could not be said of most humans.

“It doesn’t get bored and doesn’t run out of content or stories. If the kid continues not to get it or struggle, the AI will sit with them and continue to explain and break it down and repeat itself until the kid crosses the threshold,” Holdaway says.

In addition to being a platform for a fun, educational game or experience, SchoolAI’s Spaces serve as a highly individualized, one-on-one learning environment. Holdaway says they’re able to meet the students where they currently are and push them along their educational progression.

In his mind, using a new technology, especially one that has not been polluted by commercialism—yet—can give students a better start to their learning journey.

“ChatGPT and other tools like it are not gamed by SEO, first-page rankings or ads, so [a student’s] starting point is better. And since their starting point is better, their ending point is better,” Lawrence says.

Above all, Lawrence believes AI will reduce a great deal of grunt work for human users. The work done in his classes involves a lot of written correspondence. Using ChatGPT, students are spared hours typing out emails or direct messages. Now, they spend more time on creative thinking and problem-solving.

“Cold calling, emailing and texting—I don’t think there are a lot of people who love doing that,” Lawrence says. “It’s something that has to be learned, but AI can help that learning occur so much faster that you get to work more on the fun stuff.”

Lawrence uses AI to save time in his role as an educator as well. To keep his lectures fresh, he has spent time each year updating and improving classroom material. Now, he breathes new life into his teaching with AI-suggested enhancements, shortening the time it takes to revitalize his lectures while enriching the revisions.

“It’s a brilliant editor in terms of editing my original content and helping me make it better,” he says.

On the back end of a SchoolAI Space, the teacher can get real-time data and insights on their students’ progress, strengths, weaknesses and—importantly—motivation.

The fusion of individualized learning and instant feedback is invaluable to instructors like Bany. It’s much better than the old days of peer reviews and edits, he explains.

“What I get to do now is check in and spend meaningful time with the kids, looking at their writing and helping to reteach the things that they need help with,” Bany says. “Instead of running a class where I have to have the kids help teach each other, I use the AI to accurately identify issues. Then, I can find the students that need individual support and spend more time with them.”

The dangers of AI in the classroom

Still, give students the keys to the world’s greatest cheating tool, and chances are, some will use AI irresponsibly.

Lawrence has guarded against this by instructing his students to be extremely transparent when using AI to complete their assignments. Students must attach screenshots of their prompts and the responses they get so Lawrence can see their line of thinking. That, along with frequent discussions during his lectures, lets him know that the knowledge he’s teaching is being received.

“I tell them, ‘Hey, you don’t have to hide it. I want you to use it and other tools. If you find other tools, tell me what they are and share them with me and the class.’ I’ve tried to incentivize them to not hide it,” Lawrence says.

In the year or so in which he’s had an AIfriendly classroom, Lawrence has caught just two students for cheating or violating his rules. When he confronted them on his suspicions, they confessed and agreed to redo their work by following the rules.

Other than that, Lawrence has been pleased with his students’ compliance and responsible use of AI.

“I’d be remiss if I didn’t say I’m still worried about it in many ways and where it shortcuts the learning process,” Lawrence voices. “I’m not naive to think that’s not happening. You have to make the best of it and hopefully inspire students to not go down that dark path, even though some will still choose to.”

The other major concern regarding AI is somewhat out of educators’ hands. AI programs are trained with inputted

information and data. If the information is biased or incorrect, chances are good that the output could also be skewed. Researchers have also seen AI create responses on its own, completely detached from a basis in reality, which they refer to as “hallucinations.”

But Lawrence, who closely follows AI developments, believes that the funding and engineering talent going into this space will eventually reduce hallucinations to “ virtually zero.”

The future of AI and education

The truth is, whether or not educators and school administrators like it, AI is here to stay. “The genie’s out of the bottle,” Lawrence told Utah Business back in July. He lauds Weber State University and the professional sales department for supporting his innovative and entrepreneurial efforts. The Ogden-based school isn’t the only college in the state backing AI.

Brigham Young University unveiled a new degree in machine learning at the start of the fall 2023 semester. The University of Utah launched a part-time Professional Education AI Boot Camp program and

released guidelines to allow all students to use ChatGPT in their coursework. Utah State University and Utah Tech University also have defined guidelines on generative AI for their students.

For the most part, educators are optimistic about AI and its place in the classroom. A survey by Instructure found that 54.5 percent of teachers, students and administrators feel either very positive or positive about the new technology. The survey also found that over half of respondents have not yet used AI to complete their schoolwork.

As for where AI could be used most effectively, both teachers and students agreed that generative AI is most useful in science, math, and English and least effective—for now—in social studies or foreign language classes.

After all, the job of an educator is to prepare students to enter the real world. AI is a part of it now.

“I’d better send prepared students into the workforce; that’s my job,” Lawrence says. “I certainly have work to do on improving my teaching, and that’ll never stop. But mostly, I try really hard to have them learn the tools that I feel they’re going to use if they start their first real job the next day.” //

“

I’m absolutely pushing them, and in some cases, requiring them on a couple of assignments to use ChatGPT and other AI tools on their work. We help them get good at it so they can use the tools in a way that isn’t cheating—it’s augmenting.

Our story begins in 1869, when Dr. John R. Park established a teacher preparation course at what was then known as the University of the State of Deseret. The course evolved through 1888 and significantly impacted the growth of Utah’s public schools. Today, we house degree and licensure programs in early childhood and elementary education, secondary education, and special education, as well as academic and professional degrees at all levels.

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» Special Education Our roots are deep and our impact wide, rippling far beyond the classroom. Learn how our efforts to train mental health administrators, administrative leaders in K-12 and higher education, researchers, and teachers moved Utah toward a brighter educational landscape for our schools and for our community in 2023.

Last month, Utah Business partnered with Clearlink to host a roundtable on education in Utah. Moderated by Chris Lee, president of WGU Academy at Western Governors University, they discussed retention strategies, educator-led reform, AI and more.

What currently concerns you most about education?

CHRISTINE IVORY

Co-Founder | The Clark & Christine Ivory Foundation

The thing that concerns me the most about education is the children. We’ve been doing a lot of tutoring this year at a west-side school. These children are in trouble because of their phones and access to screens. We are also running Ivory University House at the University of Utah. There, we see isolation— kids have a difficult time coming out of their rooms and really want to be alone. I’m very concerned about these children, these

students, what they’re confronting, and the difficulties that they have to deal with.

CARLY MALONEY

2024 Utah Teacher of the Year Viewmont High School, Davis School District

When I asked my colleagues about their concerns, the biggest issue that was brought up was that we need to be at the table like this because we are experts. We know what is going on. Ask us because we will make the policies that are best for students. We have students’ best interests in mind.

Another concern is time and teacher-led professional development. We need to have the time and space to plan and prepare. Teacher-led professional development and teacher leadership—that can be a future of this state. Teachers are supposed to have a prep period built into their schedules to prepare and plan. We need to get away from this idea that teachers need to be “on” 24/7. It is not healthy. It’s not doing our teachers any service. It’s not doing our students any

ROUNDTABLE: EDUCATION IN UTAH

A conversation with sector leaders.

By Savannah Beth Withers Taylor

service. It is not doing our community any service. We need to get back to normalizing, taking breaks, and having that time to prepare, plan and innovate.

KRISTIN WRIGHT

Programs Director | Women Tech Council

I’m passionate about education and education here in our state. My current greatest concern is that, sometimes, students don’t understand the value of the return on education.

LIZ FINDLAY

Co-Founder | Albion Fit

Historically, education has been isolated to people who have wealth and stature. That hasn’t changed much, as the cost of education continues to be an issue. I’m truly blown away by how expensive it is to even go to the University of Utah. We are pushing kids to choose between a mountain of student debt or not pursuing that. That’s problematic.

HOLLY PETERSON VP, Instruction | Mountainland Technical College

There needs to be more respect for teachers, but there’s a lot of distraction. We ask a lot of our teachers and are continually asking more and more of them. The teachers aren’t able to focus on one-on-one education. As a school administrator, it’s similar. There are so many outside things going on that take away from good administration.

STAN HARWARD

Associate Dean, School of Education

Utah Valley University

Before COVID-19, you might have two or three children struggling with problems or behavior. Now it’s five or six or seven. The younger kids are really struggling. The older kids are not coming to school. Absenteeism has become chronic for a lot of students. We need to better prepare teachers for the kinds of issues they’re going to deal with.

ABBY COX First Lady | Utah

We make a mistake when we don’t listen to the experts. One big thing that came out of the last teacher conference was, “All these policies are happening to us and not with us.” Educators feel they don’t have access to policymakers, legislators, etc., or frankly, the logistical time to be at the legislature—they’re literally in the classroom. We have to start listening to the experts. If they’re part of the process, we’re going to have better policies and better outcomes for them and for our students.

The other big thing is the disconnect educators have between what they thought they were going to be doing and what they really were doing. I was in special education, and I thought, “I’m going to get their IEPs ready, and then I’m going to teach this child in this program.” What I got was 80 percent

of my time spent doing paperwork, gathering data and preparing reports. I wasn’t actually teaching that much.

What can we do to help improve retention rates for teachers in the state of Utah?

CARLY MALONEY

2024 Utah Teacher of the Year Viewmont High School, Davis School District

We have to continue having conversations about fair compensation and benefits. Many teachers have bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees. I have several colleagues who can’t afford a house, even with a master’s degree. To retain teachers, we need to have competitive benefits and wages. We also need to compensate teacher leadership so people can lead from their classrooms, keeping quality teachers in the classroom.

KRISTIN HADLEY

Dean & Professor, Moyes College of Education Weber State University

If you look at some of the highest-ranking education systems in the world, teachers are teaching for maybe 20 hours a week maximum, and then they have the rest of the time to mentor, shadow, prepare, collect data and fill out paperwork. If teachers are required to be on for at least six-and-a-half hours a day with kids, that’s a recipe for mental health challenges.

We also need to push back dramatically on the idea that anybody can teach. All of the studies show that is completely untrue. The most highly qualified teachers have the best results with children. In fact, one year with a highly

qualified teacher can make a huge difference in the life of a child. If a child is having year after year of less qualified teachers—teachers who don’t know how to teach, don’t understand pedagogy and don’t know how to reach a child in a way that gets them excited and motivated to learn—then we’re doing a huge disservice. Being well-prepared is a huge piece of retention for teachers, and we have lots of data to support that.

CHRISTINE IVORY

Co-Founder | The Clark & Christine Ivory Foundation

Every “female” profession—nursing, mothering, teaching—has been so devalued and continues to remain devalued, not just by men but by women. If this group could change that, we would have done something incredible. Those professions save everyone. The domestic life is life. Your life is nothing if your domestic life is chaotic and ridiculous. We have created a society where many parents have three jobs trying to keep food on the table. But if parents aren’t preparing students, it makes a teacher’s job a living nightmare. If we can elevate nurturers, that is a move toward a solution. Parents have to be a part of the teaching solution.

Even before COVID-19, we saw a decline in higher education enrollment across

the U.S. What’s causing that? What do we do about that?

VIC HOCKETT

Associate Commissioner | Talent Ready Utah, Utah System of Higher Education

We are fighting a national narrative that may not actually exist in Utah. We

need to better understand our state’s landscape, industry partners and parents to have a better understanding of what exists in classrooms here. Right now, we are putting together a study to identify what the Utah narrative actually is. Although some people don’t think our technical colleges are colleges, they are. Just this morning, we were presenting to the legislature on an apprenticeship expansion request. We’re creating apprenticeships in tech and health care and diesel—across the spectrum— because more and more employers are interested in skills-based learning.

CHRISTINE IVORY

Co-Founder | The Clark & Christine Ivory Foundation

In conversations that I’ve had with people coming from the University of Utah, they’re very concerned about how critical the legislature has been. The agenda of higher education is [seen as] liberal. It’s a very political issue right now.

KRISTIN WRIGHT

Programs Director | Women Tech Council

College is expensive, but if you’re planning ahead, there are ways to be creative around it. We can learn from other states who have been creative around the cost of college. In Florida, they have a program where if you enroll in the program the year your child is born, you’re locked into that tuition rate for that year. There are ways to be creative.

NATALIE OKESON

Executive Director | Labor & Honor Foundation VP, Corporate Responsibility & External Affairs | Clarke Capital Partners

I’d like to push back on the idea that the only things that matter in higher education are the hard skills. We do ourselves a disservice when we only focus on hard skills. General courses, which sometimes get dismissed, develop very important skills for the

actual workforce setting and are critically important.

ABBY COX

First Lady | Utah

Higher education has done a bad job of telling their own story. I hear from businesses all the time, “I can teach a kid how to code. I can’t teach a kid how to work in a diverse group or connect with other people on the team that have different points of view.” To tell the right story, higher education has to promote the critical, durable skills it can teach. Those skills, I would argue, are equally— if not more—important.

LIZ FINDLAY

Co-Founder | Albion Fit

I recently visited the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute and was so impressed. They have sewing machines, letterpress machines … I love how

interdisciplinary it is. We need to broaden our children’s horizons and show them the opportunities for growth and knowledge. Universities should create spaces for students to be able to test the waters, meet different people and talk about different things.

How do we improve a more rapid return on investment for students in higher education?

HOLLY PETERSON VP, Instruction | Mountainland Technical College

Twenty years ago, technical education wasn’t seen as a worthy endeavor. Now, technical education is very wellsupported; the buildings are beautiful, the equipment is great, and people who were directed to universities before are now directed to technical education

and do better in that environment. We’re not seeing declining enrollments in technical education. We work with a lot of employers that are willing to take students without degrees if they have a technical certificate. Texas Instruments will now hire people out of our programs with the certificate, and Texas Instruments is paying for their degrees as they continue to go to school; that’s a good value proposition.

VIC HOCKETT

Associate Commissioner | Talent Ready Utah, Utah System of Higher Education

There are more and more employers leaning into skills-based learning. Many companies no longer require full degrees to take on amazing jobs. We are aligning the levels of education required with the occupation, and more of that development is being done at our technical colleges and universities. One of our biggest opportunities to change the value proposition of higher education is to align programs with what employers need.

How can we better support a diverse and diversifying population here in Utah?

KRISTIN HADLEY

Dean & Professor, Moyes College of Education

Weber State University

I come from an open-access institution. Our students come in at all different levels of need, and our mantra is, “We take them where they are and get them where they want to go.” That looks different for every person. Some students need very little support. Other students have no idea. There’s a sentiment that if we give something to one person, we have to give

it to everybody. That’s silly. Not everyone needs it. We need to provide it for those who need it.

ANNELIESE “AP” PIXTON

Founder | Ed Tech Consulting

I put this question out to every teacher I know. To summarize, they said, “If we center the needs of our students who are least effectively served, we’ll be on the right track to effectively serving everyone.”

CARLY MALONEY

2024 Utah Teacher of the Year | Viewmont High School, Davis School District

I work with multilingual learners, and we had the opportunity to work with a first-grade teacher in one of our feeder schools—our students became pen pals. At the end of the year, we took that classroom breakfast. We read books with them, and my students taught them songs, games

and different activities from different countries. We need to connect students in the classroom as much as possible. These groups feel marginalized, but if we can help them understand what their strengths are and what they add, that’s a game changer.

STAN HARWARD

Associate Dean, School of Education | Utah Valley University

One of the biggest areas where our alumni struggle is working with multilanguage learners. It’s one thing to help them feel involved and included, but it’s another thing to sit down and teach them reading or science. You could be the greatest, nicest, most wonderful teacher in the world, but you’ve got to have the skills to know how to teach reading to somebody who’s struggling; it takes real expertise. We need to lift the skill level of our educators to be able to do that.

What are your perspectives on AI in education?

ANNELIESE “AP” PIXTON Founder | Ed Tech Consulting

We’re hearing that our K-12 educators are not ready for AI, but they are. They just need a lot of support. We have some of the most brilliant minds in AI engineering in Utah. I’m so glad those voices are interested in what’s going on in education and are developing tools for the classroom, but it’s important that we amplify educators’ voices—from a learning and development standpoint and from a child advocacy standpoint. AI will go one of two ways. If educators take hold of it, I believe teaching could become one of the highestpaid and highest-respected professions in the world. They won’t be babysitters, paperwork pushers or building managers. Teachers will be true facilitators for everyone who goes out into the world to do everything else. Subject matter will matter less. The learning and development skills people learn will matter so much more. //

Dear Utah Parents & Students,

Our students will soon be our state’s community leaders, workforce, parents, and more. As a father of four boys, I believe it is important to get our youth engaged in government. Decisions being made by our lawmakers today will directly impact the next generation for years to come.

My office loves to help Utah’s students get involved and learn more about government and civics.

• We welcome college-aged students to serve as interns in our Ogden and Washington offices to answer constituent phone calls, give Capitol tours, assist our legislative and communications staff, attend official events, and much more.

• Come visit my DC office, and we will take you on an educational tour of the Capitol!

• We encourage constituents of all ages to sign up for our weekly e-newsletters to stay informed on my upcoming events, legislative progress, and activities. Visit blakemoore.house.gov to subscribe!

• I regularly host both in-person and telephone town halls to engage with constituents and take your questions. I recently took a great question from a very smart 8-year-old student during my tele-town hall, and we had a fun conversation. Be sure to join us!

• I love visiting local schools to read to students and talk about my role in Congress. Students always ask the best questions!

• This year, I sent letters to hundreds of graduating high school seniors congratulating them on their achievement and encouraging them to get involved in local government. We are happy to provide letters to your school; reach out to my office and let us know!

It is an honor to represent the First District of Utah’s bright students and amazing educators. Please reach out to my office if we can ever be of service to you or provide an educational experience.

NOW LEASING FOR 2024

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