| In October 2005, Saint Paul Public Schools received a three-year grant in the amount of $3.3 million from the U.S. Department of Education Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants program, Title II of the Higher Education Amendments of 1998.
The grant will allow the District to recruit, prepare and support highly-qualified, diverse teachers.
Our goals include:
- recruiting more diverse teacher candidates into the profession,
- recruiting more teachers into the areas of English as a Second Language and Special Education - Learning Disabilities and Emotional/Behavior Disorders to address the shortage of fully licensed teachers in these areas in SPPS,
- designing a customized, integrated teacher preparation program,
- supporting participants through a comprehensive teacher preparation program,
- strengthening relationships between Saint Paul Public Schools and institutions of higher education, and
- developing the instructional leadership capacity of teachers
Too often there is a disconnect between institutions of higher education and public schools that can result in a lost opportunity to integrate academic learning with applied learning. We hope to change this with the TQE Program by training teachers through a customized teacher licensure program in partnership with the University of St. Thomas. Saint Paul Public Schools master teachers serving as instructors for some courses, classroom observations and student teaching in Saint Paul Public Schools, and methods and practices used by teachers in Saint Paul Public Schools incorporated into the courses already established by the University of St. Thomas are all features of this program. This customized program intends to better prepare new teachers for their career and to meet the academic needs of students in Saint Paul Public Schools.
Approximately 85 SPPS employees received scholarships for the TQE Fellowship Program. These "Fellows" are completing a graduate level teacher licensure program. The teacher licensure program will take 14 to 26 months to complete, depending on the license area. Most Fellows will be licensed by the fall of 2007. The remainder of the Fellows will be licensed by Fall 2008.
Fellows will be supported throughout the program by academic and test tutoring/mentoring and opportunities for training in the areas of licensure. Fellows are required to teach in a high-needs school in a high-needs district upon completion of the fellowship for a period equivalent to the amount of time it took to complete the fellowship.
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