UIndy joins national educational effort
The University of Indianapolis recently was invited to partner with organizations nationwide in the 100Kin10 program, a national movement to recruit, prepare, retain and support 100,000 skilled secondary teachers over the next 10 years in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) disciplines.
According to Executive Vice President and Provost Deborah Balogh, UIndy is one of 80 partners nationwide who have committed to one or more of the three featured objectives of the collaboration, which are to build the supply of STEM teachers, retain excellence and build the movement.
“We will be working on the retention initiative through our mentoring program, and that’s largely through the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows program,” Balogh said. “As far as building the movement, we are part of an evaluation assessment initiative through the Woodrow Wilson program that uses best practices in evaluation of the STEM teacher education program. So we will contribute to the research and evaluation knowledge base.”
Balogh also is on a committee of the partnership that is involved in engaging partners and recruiting new partners.
Carnegie Corporation of New York, Opportunity Equation and New Schools Venture Fund kickstarted the program in January as a response to the nation’s decades-long decline in the fields of math and science.
Other partners in the program include corporations, nonprofits, federal agencies and others, but UIndy was the only university in the state of Indiana asked to join the initiative.
“We are being recognized as a leader in STEM teacher education, not just a leader in the state, but a leader nationally,” said Jennifer Drake, acting dean for the College of Arts and Sciences and director of the Woodrow Wilson Program.
School of Education Dean and Associate Professor Kathryn Moran stressed the importance of UIndy being chosen as a partner.
“Given the fact that we’re the only university in Indiana that is a part of the partnership at this point, that was really quite an honor,” Moran said. “It recognizes a lot of the exceptional work and thinking that we’re doing about how to prepare STEM, in our case science and math teachers, and build on some of the successes and some of the national recognition we’ve been getting because of our Woodrow Wilson program and some statewide work that we’ve been doing around elementary education and science as well.”
UIndy was nominated to participate in the program by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and then had to go through an application process before being selected by the University of Chicago.
“The Woodrow Wilson Foundation gave us [the School of Education] the money in 2007-2008, along with a Lilly endowment, to start the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship Program. And based on the evaluative data they’ve been collecting and ongoing conversations with us [Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship Program], they’re pleased with the work we’ve done in the Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellowship program,” Drake said. “We basically recreated our teacher education program, and it has a focus on preparing science and math teachers for urban high-need schools. So based on their recommendation we were chosen.”
Part of the UIndy commitment is to prepare 330 STEM teachers over the next five years through various programs, and partner with the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and the state of Indiana to track the academic achievement of students taught by UIndy graduates, and use the data for program review and improvement.
According to Drake, this includes developing progress in math and science programs, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and incorporating math and science teaching into the elementary education program.
This way, all elementary education teachers who graduate from UIndy will have a strong background in math and science teaching, as well as anyone majoring in biology, chemistry, math or physics teaching.
“It means making sure our programs are high-quality, and we’ve been doing a lot of work there and will continue to do that work,” Drake said. “We’re really thinking innovatively about teacher education and how to combine robust rigorous content preparation with what we’re calling clinical preparation, which is as much time in the schools as possible. Those two pieces are really important components of our program and this initiative.”
Drake also said that at some point, UIndy would like to increase the number of students in those STEM majors.
Moran said that being involved in this program will bring benefits for the university, such as the opportunity to apply for additional grant money.
Balogh also mentioned the opportunity to receive more grant funds.
“Provided we’re successful in submitting a proposal that’s funded, that could have a huge impact on our program,” she said.
Another benefit Balogh noted is that the other partners also are trying new, innovative technology in science education. So there will be opportunities to share best practices among the partners.
“It’s [being chosen as a partner] a huge honor, but comes with a commitment we want to see through,” Balogh said. “It’s not just getting a gold star; it’s delivering the goods.”
