FIPSE (Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education)

Project Idea

In November, 2001, Wittenberg received a FIPSE grant to help create a new graduate program for practicing teachers. The program would include the development of graduate level courses, seminars, and conferences for teachers, administrators, and youth workers. The program would university and local expertise to improve P-12 education.

Project Description

Over the next three years, this project develops a series of graduate level courses and seminars that can focus on local educational concerns. These courses would be co-created by Wittenberg liberal arts and science faculty and master teachers in the area. Both groups will receive training in the needs of area youth and in creating outcome-based courses directly tied to those needs. Area educators chosen to be involved in the effort would be given the title of "Teaching Associates" and would receive a formal appointment in the Education Department. The professional development opportunities will form around need areas which have been identified through the results of local and state competency tests: Building Capacities for Character and Citizenship; Literacy and Expression; and Numeracy and Scientific Exploration;. We expect the educational efforts to be planned during the school year and offered the following summer each year of the project. All of the courses will combine content knowledge with the research skill required to assess the effect of educational interventions on student performance. In follow up forums and through an interactive web page, participants will report on their research.

Outcomes

• A series of courses in each of the theme areas. Topics may include: inquiry in the sciences, effective scientific field work, character education, technological advances in math instruction, developing advocacy partnerships across social service divisions, literacy skill development, and confronting youth violence;

• A series of kick off conferences in each of the three summers of the project which will provide examples of best practices within each of the themes and which will highlight existing community needs;

• Measurable student achievement gains in the various areas addressed by the courses;

• A cadre of trained faculty drawn from the university and the community who can teach in the program;

• The creation of outreach forums, a professional publication, and an online interactive web page that would allow teachers and other youth service professionals to publish the results of efforts to increase student achievement.