UCA’s new dean of education came to campus with her sleeves rolled up and her eyes focused on a new direction for the College of Education.
Victoria Groves-Scott, born in Rogers, Arkansas has not wasted time implementing the multitude of ideas she brought with her from her 15 years of experience at Southern Illinois University—Edwardsville, where she was assistant dean of education.
The College of Education faculty and staff is already impressed with her passion for teaching and constant brainstorming. “Her enthusiasm for making a positive difference within our university community is contagious,” Department of Education Chair Tammy Benson said. “She has encouraged us all to reach out to other colleges, public education and our community to increase collaboration, promote social justice and ensure a positive impact.”
Groves-Scott’s main goal for the department is preparing future teachers to be equipped to work in diverse settings and to be aware of social injustices, institutional racism and institutional privilege.
“The Latino and African-American minority groups in Arkansas are rapidly growing, and we need to be able to keep up with that,” Groves-Scott said. “I’ve put together a diversity task force
and they’re going to be studying [diverse]populations in Arkansas, and how we can make meaningful changes in Arkansas education.”
Groves-Scott said she feels a commitment to improving Arkansas’ education system because it’s her home. She wants to use her knowledge of social injustices in the education system from her time working in East St. Louis, Missouri. “I worked for three years at a charter school [there], and it’s really made me focused on [the issues],” Groves-Scott said. “In St. Louis, it’s easy to see injustices all over the place [and]I think teachers see it all the time and together we can [make changes] in a bigger way.”
Groves-Scott has also addressed retention issues within the department by implementing a faculty-freshmen mentoring program, along with addressing current tutoring programs. “She [is]giving strong support to our programs that are working diligently to have a positive impact on K 12 students by pairing them up with tutors from our teacher education programs,” Benson said.
