28 Nov2023
By Tonya Lowentritt
The Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) has awarded a $1.67 million contract to Northshore Regional STEM Center, led by Southeastern Louisiana University in partnership with Northshore Technical Community College and LaSTEM.
Appropriated by the Louisiana State Legislature, the funds will be used to develop and deliver 40 hours of computer science Praxis exam training through multiple cohorts to 1,000 6th-12th grade teachers statewide. The project will be led by the Northshore Regional LaSTEM Center Director Wendy Conarro, Southeastern Interim Computer Science Department Head Bonnie Achee, and Dean of the College of Education Paula Summers Calderon.
As part of the LDOE initiative to “Ignite, Inspire, and Energize” computer science education across Louisiana supporting education and industry, the training will be held virtually in March and April, with a hybrid cohort in June.
28 Nov2023
By Amanda Nelson
(Right) Principal investigator Jonathan Thomas, Ph.D., professor and chair, UK College of Education Department of STEM Education, and co-principal investigator Cindy Jong, Ph.D., professor, UK College of Education Department of STEM Education.
A new University of Kentucky (UK) study funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) seeks to make mathematics more relatable to all students by focusing on how teachers respond to children’s experiences, knowledge, and mathematical reasoning.
UK College of Education Department of STEM Education faculty are collaborating with faculty at the University of Texas at San Antonio, Georgia State University, and Rowan University on the $1.5 million NSF grant, with $821,000 of the funding coming to UK.
Preparing teachers to create equitable mathematics classrooms is an ongoing challenge for teacher education, said Jonathan Thomas, Ph.D., lead principal investigator of the NSF grant and professor and chair in the UK College of Education Department of STEM Education.
“There are students not being reached, sometimes because the structures we have in place send signals that this thing called ‘math’ really isn’t for you, and we want to push against those narratives. We lose so much talent, brain power and creativity by shutting certain doors,” Thomas said.
21 Nov2023
By Mark Toth
With more than 90,000 working educator alumni in classrooms nationwide, WGU has a deep commitment to K-12 education, and to the future teachers coming through initial licensure programs as well as master’s degree programs for educators. While much has been said in media and news outlets about the increasing needs of students, especially post-COVID-19 pandemic, some education leaders, including those at WGU, are concerned that more attention needs to be given to what teachers need after the last three challenging years.
Sharing that concern is Utah’s First Lady Abby Cox, who recently shifted the lens of her annual Show Up for Teachers conference to focus on teacher and educator personal and professional wellness with tools and resources throughout the conference breakout sessions and keynotes including guest speaker Arthur Brooks, the Harvard University researcher on happiness. In 2023, the WGU School of Education was honored to become a major sponsor of the conference.
20 Nov2023
By University of Indianapolis
The University of Indianapolis (UIndy) is delighted to announce a significant gift in memory of Nanci Vargus. This generous gift was provided by Nanci’s daughter, Jilda Vargus-Adams who wanted to create a lasting legacy for her mother’s commitment and dedication to education and her remarkable impact on the University.
The University will establish the Nanci Vargus Learning Resource Center to remember Nanci’s legacy. Nanci was an educator at the university for over 20 years who used her expertise and kindness to guide elementary and college-age students alike in their journeys to literacy.
“As a child, Mom literally read every book in her local library’s children’s section. She loved books. But more than that, she loved the joy that everyone can get from reading and she built her career with that goal in mind,” Vargus-Adams said. “Both as an elementary school teacher and as a professor of education, Mom endeavored to ensure that all children could have the gift of literacy.”
07 Nov2023
By Michael Staton
The Clemson University College of Education’s teacher residency program will expand to school districts in the Pee Dee region thanks to a $2.39 million award from the U.S. Department of Education. The project will place 16 teacher residents in participating districts in the region each year for four years, paying each a $25,000 living stipend during their residency year when the students are placed with mentor teachers.
College leaders expect that most of the educators taking advantage of this stipend will be those pursuing a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) online from Clemson. These students — often career changers coming into education with a bachelor’s degree in another field — will be afforded the same opportunity as undergraduate students in the residency program and enjoy additional support to spend a year with a mentor teacher while earning their MAT degree.
The students will spend a full academic year of residency with an experienced mentor teacher who continuously gathers data about a resident’s progress to provide targeted support and feedback. Teacher residents in the Pee Dee districts will receive the $25,000 stipend and move from a collaborative, co-teaching role in the classroom to an increasingly responsible, lead-teaching role.
06 Nov2023
By Jenna Somers
This article was originally published by Vanderbilt University.
ChatGPT is here to stay and educators need to adapt to their students using it — at least, that is what news headlines have suggested for almost a year following ChatGPT’s unveiling. Much of the coverage has given voice to worries about the possibility that AI will hinder learning by doing students’ work for them. But the AI revolution has just begun, and some experts are seizing on AI’s positive potential to augment teaching and learning.
A growing number of those experts are faculty at Vanderbilt Peabody College of Education and Human Development, including Scott Crossley, professor of special education, Bethany Rittle-Johnson, professor of psychology and human development, and Kelley Durkin, research assistant professor of teaching and learning. They have teamed up to launch data science challenges that will leverage the power of AI to advance K-12 education in writing and math. Supported by several private foundations, they will lead two challenges focused on improving student writing and one challenge to model students’ math misconceptions. Teams will compete to integrate AI models into automatic writing evaluation systems to better provide feedback to students. The math challenge aims to provide teachers and students with early feedback on probable misconceptions.
23 Oct2023
By Vorhees University
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Voorhees University a $26.7 million grant to serve more than 850 teachers and nearly 11,000 students.
Voorhees’ Center of Excellence for Educator Preparation and Innovation is receiving a new Teacher and School Leader Incentive Program grant to improve student achievement in Fairfield County School District and Georgetown County School District.
The REAP: Rewarding Educator Achievement and Performance grant aims to improve the quality of education, elevate educator effectiveness, raise student achievement, and increase equity in learning.
16 Oct2023
By Virginia State University (VSU)
The Virginia State University (VSU) College of Education has announced a new teacher residency program to help with the teacher shortage in Petersburg, VA, and provide future educators with an immersive educational experience.
Finding quality teachers has been a struggle for Petersburg in recent years, much like for schools nationwide. When Petersburg realized some of their K-12 classrooms would be overcrowded this upcoming school year, they came to VSU seeking stellar students interested in doing an early teacher residency. In August, the HERO program was born.
HERO, or Hybrid Education Residency Opportunity, is a comprehensive and innovative program that combines coursework and practical teaching in an actual classroom setting.
09 Oct2023
The School of Education and Human Development will lead research to support future educators.
By Ruben Hidalgo
This article was originally published by Texas A&M Today.
Texas A&M University will address the demand for teachers in Texas with the help of a $3 million Hispanic Serving Institution capacity-building grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
Through the five-year grant, the School of Education and Human Development (SEHD) will lead the development and assessment of a pilot program to recruit, mentor, and retain students who want to major in education or human resource development.
During the pilot, SEHD will provide its expertise in academic coaching, advising and essential services as well as partner with academic units and divisions across the campus, including the Division of Student Affairs and the Department of Admissions and Undergraduate Recruitment and Outreach.
03 Oct2023
By California Lutheran University
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Cal Lutheran a $1,241,679 grant to support the Graduate School of Education’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing Credential Program.
The five-year grant will fund Access Teach: Closing the Deaf/Hard of Hearing Educator Gap, a project to support 60 graduate-level students who will leave the program as credentialed teachers of high-need deaf and hard-of-hearing students in public schools. In addition to tuition, financial aid, textbooks, and instructional materials, the project will provide mentoring and other support to recruit and retain students.
The grant also allows the program to be restructured to a hybrid format by summer 2024. Classes will be synchronous with some in-person classes on Saturdays. This change will enable the university to accommodate the needs of working professionals across Southern California.
03 Oct2023
By Marissa Garcia
This article originally appeared in the North Texas Daily.
Texas Woman’s University is helping around 100 teaching assistants obtain bachelor’s degrees and Texas teaching certifications, financed by $500,000 in grants awarded from Houston Independent School District.
The grants come from HISD’s Grow Your Own grant program, which began in May 2023 in response to the national teacher shortage. HISD offered 10 grants of $100,000 this year to institutions that “offer high-quality, low-cost pathways to aspiring educators,” according to HISD.
TWU was one of three universities selected, the others being Prairie View A&M University and Tarleton State University, and received five out of the 10 grants, said Lisa Huffman, dean of the College of Professional Education and Department of Human Development professor.
26 Sep2023
By Eugene Pringle, Jr.
This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet focused on education and is reprinted with permission.
In the last few years, the American education system has been bludgeoned by changes that have upended decades of progress toward better academic, economic and social outcomes for all.
Politicians around the country have been aiming to demolish progressive policies by targeting teaching about race and ethnicity, the LGBTQIA+ community and women’s reproductive rights. Calls for book banning and censorship have become common. These dangerous culture wars will wreak havoc on education and education policy for years to come.
As a teacher and school-based leader, I always understood the necessity of advocating for students and helping them navigate life, and I tried to help other teachers change the trajectory of many lives.
21 Sep2023
By Tyler Pointer
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) 2022 Best Practice Award for Innovative Use of Technology winner Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO)’s College of Education, Health, and Human Studies was recently designated as an Apple Distinguished School.
A designation the college has held since 2014, SEMO’s College of Education, Health, and Human Studies holds this distinction through 2025. The college received this honor for its integration of technology through the university’s EDvolution Center, a space on campus dedicated to innovation and emerging technology.
At the EDvolution Center, students can experience the Virtual Reality Room, utilize the podcasting booth, and collaborate with others using mediascapes, so they may use and share these and other technological tools with their students in their own classrooms. Through their work in assisting students in solving contextual problems in meaningful ways utilizing technology, the EDvolution Center and the EDvolution Model, a research-based model focusing on effective and appropriate technology integration received the AACTE 2022 Best Practice Award for the Innovative Use of Technology.
“We are extremely proud to earn this prestigious distinction for an additional three years,” said Joe Pujol, dean of the College of Education, Health, and Human Studies. “The selection of Southeast as an Apple Distinguished School highlights our success as an innovator and a compelling learning environment that engages students and provides tangible evidence of academic achievement.”
19 Sep2023
By Shannon G. Magsam
College of Education and Health Professions faculty and Decatur School District officials met recently to discuss their new partnership. From left, Matt Boeving, Steve Watkins, Christy Smith, Jennifer Beasley, Christine Ralston, Kevin Matthews, and Ederlee Gomez.
A faculty team in the College of Education and Health Professions was awarded a $525,013 Teacher Quality Partnership grant from the U.S. Department of Education that will help produce a pipeline of teachers in small, rural Northwest Arkansas schools.
The team is based in the college’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction, which prepares students for various careers in education. The grant team is led by Christine Ralston, a teaching associate professor, who is working closely with co-principal investigators Jennifer Beasley, Vicki Collet, and Christy Smith.
Collet will provide support for mentoring, and Smith will provide support for co-teaching, which are both pivotal to the Razorback STARS project.
12 Sep2023
By Kansas State University
Kansas State University’s College of Education and Hutchinson Community College have begun a partnership that paves a seamless pathway for area students to earn a bachelor’s degree in education online while remaining in their home communities.
This pathway program begins in high school, where students chart their journeys to becoming teachers and take dual credit courses through Hutchinson Community College. As they progress through the community college phase, students will be provided with comprehensive guidance to ensure a smooth transition to K-State Online and field experiences in their local schools.
The innovative online platform allows aspiring educators — both traditional and non-traditional students — to balance their studies with other commitments while benefiting from the expertise of distinguished faculty members and advanced educational resources.
