Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Education has granted $10 million to Illinois State University’s College of Education and Chicago Teacher Education Pipeline (CTEP).
- The Teacher Quality Partnership grant will be used to develop an URBAN CENTER (Using Research Based Actions to Network Cities Engaged in New Teacher Education Reform), to bring teacher education programs to more urban, high-needs neighborhoods in Chicago and central Illinois.
- CTEP already has a program in place, so the grant money will be used to improve the existing program.
Dive Insight:
Focusing energies and money on improving teacher training sounds like a pragmatic use of funds. The more training a teacher has the better. Retaining teachers in urban communities is difficult, so if training is set up around these communities, the likelihood of teacher retention also goes up. Specifically, with CTEP there is a six-step process before teachers get their own classroom, so this diligence and degree of training ideally pays off.