(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – Jacqueline Van Houten, Ph.D., world language and international education consultant for the Kentucky Department of Education, has been named National Foreign Language State Supervisor of the Year.
Van Houten received the award last week at the 2008 American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Convention and World Languages Expo in Orlando, Florida.
Since 2003, the award has been presented by the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages and sponsored by the publishing company Pearson Prentice Hall. The purpose of the award is to acknowledge outstanding foreign language supervisory leadership at the state level among professionals whose leadership in facilitating the implementation of standards-based reform and advocacy for foreign languages has had a profound impact in their states and others throughout the country.
Candidates are nominated by their states through letters of support and are evaluated in the areas of Leadership, Innovative Contribution and Service. Van Houten has been instrumental in establishing Memoranda of Understanding with the governments of France, Spain and China to bring teachers to Kentucky and develop school partnerships. She also helped developed LinguaFolio, a national self-assessment, reflective learning tool for language and intercultural competencies.
Letters of support for Van Houten’s nomination were received from Jessamine County Superintendent Lu Young; Linda Pickle, Ph.D., past chair of Western Kentucky University’s Department of Modern Languages; Jeff Rogers, Ph.D., professor at the University of Kentucky; and Susann Davis, president of the Kentucky World Language Association.
Van Houten has served as a foreign language/international education consultant at the Kentucky Department of Education since 1999. A native of Louisville, she resides in Villa Hills.
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