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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

IU awarded federal funding to improve teacher quality

IU is investing in the education of young Hoosiers.

IU was one of three Indiana colleges to win funding from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to support programs geared toward enhancing teachers’ skills in high-need school districts and subjects.

Teacher Quality Partnership Program, which operates under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, is the nation’s largest federally funded initiative in supporting educator quality and professional development projects.

Created by the Indiana state legislature in 2002, the program seeks to foster lasting, mutually beneficial relationships between Indiana’s higher education communities and high-need K-12 school districts.

Private and public colleges in Indiana can apply for the grant program.

This year, the ICHE received approximately $920,000 in federal funds, which will be allocated between IU, Purdue University and the University of Notre Dame.

Stephanie Wilson, the communications director for ICHE, said the TQP Grant Program benefits students as well as the state of Indiana as a whole.

Wilson said that by identifying and awarding funds to organizations that exhibit the best partnership with K-12 schools, the program aims to provide high-need schools with professional development opportunities.

“The focus and scope of the program is very timely right now, especially with the national attention to impending teacher shortages,” Wilson said.

With the $283,095 grant, IU’s Bloomington and Northwest campuses will provide schools with intensive summer sessions, monthly workshops and coaching-rehearsal sessions to develop teachers’ knowledge and skills in the instruction of English/Language Arts as well as STEM subjects, according to a press release from the CHE.

Wilson said funding for the two-year grant, which began Thursday, Oct. 1, will end Sept. 30, 2017.

School districts affected by this program include Indianapolis Public Schools, the Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township and the Monroe County Community School Corporation, according to the 
release.

“This is a great program that helps faculty from Higher Education Institutions work together with high-need local education agencies with the goal of improving the quality of teachers as well as student learning,” said Enrique Galindo, an associate professor of mathematics education and president of the Hoosier Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators.

Having directed several professional development projects, Galindo said programs like TQP grant program are important for a variety of reasons.

Galindo said the program targets schools that are in the greatest need of rehabilitation, like schools with large percentages of students living below the poverty line and schools with a large number of teachers who need improvement.

“They bring together faculty who have knowledge of teaching based on research with teachers who have knowledge of teaching based on their practice,” Galindo said. “The product of this collaboration is a great way to work together to improve teaching and learning.”

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