Grants allow community partnerships to flourish
Partnerships with area schools are at the core of the College of Education’s (COE) mission. Recently, the COE has been involved in several grants with local school districts that provide mutually beneficial opportunities.
"The grants provide us with resources that allow us to further develop and extend our already strong partnerships with area schools," said John Gambro, dean of the College of Education. "We are able to provide services to the schools, while at the same time enhancing our programs."
USF, in collaboration with Joliet Grade School District 86, is participating in a $6.99 million grant program from the U.S. Department of Education’s Teacher Quality Enhancement Program (TQE), awarded to the Associated Colleges of Illinois (ACI). USF is working with District 86 to develop Professional Development Schools at Farragut and A.O. Marshall Elementary Schools. Professional Development Schools are innovative institutions formed through partnerships between professional education programs and P-12 schools.
One aspect of the grant that has had an immediate impact on USF programs is in the area of technology. The COE is working with the Joliet school district to align technology curriculum to better prepare teacher candidates to use technology in the schools. Grant funds have been allocated to purchase technology equipment, such as interactive whiteboards and document cameras, to train teacher candidates. Additionally, the grant has allowed COE members and District 86 teachers and administrators to jointly attend conferences and collaboratively plan curriculum and learning experiences for students and teacher candidates.
The 21st Century Community Learning Center grant is a federally funded grant that was awarded to Joliet Township High School District 204. The grant allows approximately 200 ninth and 10th grade students to participate in academic enrichment experiences focusing on reading and math. As part of a summer program, incoming ninth grade students visited the USF campus each week in order to get a taste of campus life. During the program, students rotated through interactive activities including health and nutrition, fitness, college admissions, library, career explorations, and campus clubs and activities.
The program is coordinated by JTHS teachers and USF alumni Melissa Stapleton (’00) and Mary Balsie (’93). According to Balsie, it is important for high school students to know the vast array of resources that are available in their own community. "Exposure to college life and topics helps students make plans for their future, while enriching their current high school experience," she adds.
With the help of another grant, approximately 30 teachers from Joliet Elementary School District 86 and Township High School District 204 participated in the Teachers and Scientists for Instructional Renaissance Project (TASIR) this summer. In addition to the veteran teachers, 10 recently certified USF alumni were selected to participate as part of a Teacher Fellowship Award. The award allows newly certified teachers to further their professional development and earn graduate credit while supporting their efforts to develop high quality instructional materials to use in their practice.
TASIR, funded by an Illinois Math Science Partnership grant, includes USF, Districts 86 and 204, Argonne National Laboratory and the Pilcher Park Nature Center in Joliet as partners. The project provided teachers direct experience with the materials, content and methodologies utilized by grades 3-9 teachers in the science and math curricula. Using an inquiry approach, teachers collaboratively explored content and developed instructional activities. USF faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences provided expert content area instruction in math and science. Participation in field experiences at Argonne National Laboratory and Pilcher Park Nature Center was also included in the project.
Dr. Lisa White-McNulty, USF coordinator of TASIR, sees the value of the program as twofold: "TASIR provides the opportunity for participants to take what they've learned and develop concrete plans for their classrooms," she said. "In addition, they can systematically test these ideas to see if they are effective in improving students' scientific knowledge."
The project will extend throughout the next few years with teachers attending follow-up sessions and carrying-out action research projects during the year.
According to Gambro, all of these grants allow the COE to realize a key element of its mission, to "serve the community."
"We consider ourselves fortunate to have developed these outstanding partnerships with our area schools," said Gambro, who adds that the partnerships are based on shared goals, shared resources and mutual benefit.
The grants provide excellent opportunities for our candidates to be involved with authentic school-based projects," he said. "It is wonderful to see our teacher candidates learning along side veteran in-service teachers - many of whom are USF alumni."