by Claire Miller
Three College of Education faculty are working to offer on-site training and mentorship to support students in the college’s Urban Accelerated Certification and Master’s Program (UACM) and other teachers in their first years of their careers, thanks to a five- year, $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
Early Childhood Education faculty members Diane Truscott, Nancy Schafer and Laura May received the grant for their Quality Instruction for English Learners (QuIEL) project, which prepares teachers to serve English language learners through site-based development, professional learning opportunities and mentoring.
“One key activity of the grant is to develop a Professional Learning Site with DeKalb County Schools to help bridge theory and practice for preservice and inservice teachers,” said Schafer, project director and co-principal investigator for the QuIEL project. “This grant will allow us to better support first-year teachers as they transition from apprentice to teacher of record.”
More specifically, the teacher professional development will focus on literacy and language development with an infusion of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) activities, such as summer workshops, new curriculum and technology for language acquisition and online professional learning communities.
“Support for this project allows us to extend the quality of learning opportunities the UACM program provides to build the community school partnerships necessary for sustainable outcomes,” said Truscott, principal investigator for the project.
Truscott, Schafer and May hope their grant work will allow them to further develop the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) endorsement for the urban master’s degree program and create a seamless transition for teachers who go from their collegiate programs into the classroom.
“This grant allows us to innovate and find ways of improving teacher preparation that will hopefully lay the foundation needed to continue this kind of support,” Schafer said.
For more information about the QuIEL project, visit http://education.gsu.edu/ece/6364.html. For more information on the Urban Accelerated Certification and Master’s Program (UACM) in Early Childhood Education, visit http://education.gsu.edu/ece/4566.html.
