Vickie Scow2013 State Supervisor of the Year
Vickie Scow, Director of World Language Education for the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE), was recognized as the 2013 State Supervisor of the Year at the Annual Meeting of the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages (NCSSFL) in Orlando, Florida on November 21. Vickie served as Vice-President of NCSSFL from 2000 to 2003, served on the ACTFL Board of Directors (2007-2010). In 2007 Vickie was honored as the Employee of the Year by the Nebraska Department of Education.
A true educational leader involves teachers and students by providing opportunities that can make a difference in their teaching. One example of the impact of Vickie’s leadership occurred when she was invited to participate in a study tour to Germany where she learned about the European Language Portfolio, a classroom formative assessment tool designed to promote self-regulation, motivation and achievement among language learners. Vickie secured funding to develop the Nebraska LinguaFolio, which led to a collaborative effort between NDE and UNL. Dr. Ali Moeller and her research team conducted a 5-year longitudinal study with 23 school districts to examine what students know and are able to do with language after 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years of classroom study. Nebraska collaborated with NCSSFL to promote this empirically tested classroom intervention which led to the publication of the NCSSFL/ACTFL Can Do Statements.
Collaboration is an important aspect for success. Vickie and Dr. Ali Moeller(UNL) collaborated for eight years on two Foreign Language Assistant Program (FLAP) Grants. These federally funded grants allowed NDE and its partners to increase foreign language achievement by improving world language teaching and learning. The goals of these grants included increasing elementary language programs, providing intensive PD and implementing the Nebraska LinguaFolio. The Chinese Grant focused on increasing K-12 Chinese language programs and providing PD for teachers of Chinese in Nebraska. Dr. Moeller and Vickie worked closely with the UNL Confucius Institute and Nebraska school districts to provide Professional Development, including a 10-day residential institute at UNL. These programs have received national recognition and represent collaboration across and among agencies, institutes of higher education and K-12 schools.