A $5 million federally funded State Personnel Development grant was just given to the Indiana Department of Education to ultimately give all students the access to high-quality teaching, Director of the Center on Education and Lifelong Learning Sandi Colesaid.
Cole and co-project director Teresa Grossi will establish the Indiana Center on Teacher Quality with this grant.
Grossi, the director on Community Living and Careers, said the federal grant will address certain issues, as well as simply improve the quality of teaching available.
“Some of it was priority that needed to be addressed through the federal funding agencies, but we approached it in the needs of Indiana,” Grossi said. “So we’re trying to improve the instruction, the quality of teaching, as well as identifying recruitment and hiring strategies to be able to keep quality teachers in the field.”
The ball will begin rolling quickly for the Indiana Center on Teacher Quality. Cole said they will begin taking applications from districts, with schools teaching K-12, throughout Indiana that could use help from the Indiana Center on Teacher Quality.
The applications are due by July 1, and then decisions will be made for which six districts will be “model influentation districts,” Cole said.
Cole said these districts will be of high need and the center will work intensively to improve the quality of teaching and the needs of that specific district.
Improving the teaching quality of these six districts is supposed to be achieved through this grant over the next five years.
“We are addressing this through a framework called implementation science,” Cole said. “And through that framework, we will be working directly with the schools and they will help determine where the focus area is. So we won’t go in and say, ‘We need X,Y and Z,’ we will go in and say, ‘What do you need in this district to meet the goals of this grant?’”
Cole said she and Grossi will be providing statewide training, online modules and tutorials.
No matter if the teacher works with general or special education, Grossi said the goal is to ensure all students have access to high-quality instruction.
Grossi said the goal of the grant and the Indiana Center on Teacher Quality would not only help teachers, but ultimately help the students as well.
Beyond what and how the students will learn in grade school, Grossi said she hopes the Indiana Center on Teacher Quality will help students excel past high school.
Grossi said she and Cole want the access to higher quality instruction to lead to further success academically and socially.
“I hope that students will have access to better instruction and some of the work that that instruction will lead to better academic achievement and outcomes that really do make sure our students K-12 are ready for the world of college and careers and community life,” she said.
