The Curry School of Education and the College expect to be awarded a "Teachers for a New Era" $5 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation soon. The schools sent their final proposal to the New York-based philanthropic organization last Friday and hope to receive approval this fall.
The grant, broken up into five $1 million blocks over five years, and which requires matching funds from the University, will be spent on three major programs, Education School Dean David Breneman said.
Because of the Carnegie Corporation's goal of making "teacher preparation a university responsibility," the College and Education School first will work to create "common core courses" for second-year students. These interdisciplinary classes will be open to Curry students and College students interested in education but not currently enrolled in the Education School.
The second major piece is an assessment and evaluation of Education School programs.
"Carnegie wants excellence," Breneman said. "They want hard empirical evidence of the effectiveness of our programs."
Schools selected for the grants are to serve as models for other institutions.In order to serve as a model, there must be statistics that demonstrate institutions receiving Carnegie grants have a higher success rate among graduates.
The third component of the "Carnegie vision" is a program to support teachers and ensure educators continue to improve their teaching techniques.For this reason, the Education School will begin to mentor Charlottesville and Albemarle public school teachers.
The Carnegie grant will enable the school to provide local educators instruction on classroom management and other advancements in education, Teacher Education Director Sandra Cohen said.
Although the Education School and local school systems have had contact in the past, this new program will provide the most cooperation to date.
The export and replication of successful University programs to other schools marks another cornerstone of Carnegie's program, Cohen said. Carnegie wants programs that are sustainable, and "genuinely reform and advance" teaching, she added.
The Education School did not apply for the grant, but was selected last spring by a Carnegie Corporation-approved committee whose members included the Rand Corp. The committee only selected three other schools.
The schools selected come from different categories of institutions.In addition to the University, representing large research schools, Michigan State University, a land grant school, Bank Street College, a small private specialized college in New York, and California State University-Northridge, a regional college, will receive the awards.
The grant is a one-time award. The Carnegie Corporation also stipulated that the University must raise $5 million in matching funds and create a $1.5 million endowment to continue the new programs.
In October, the Board of Visitors will vote to adopt the proposal for using the grant.
The education division of the Carnegie Corporation awarded $21 million in grants last year.
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