Francis Marion University - School of Education

FMU Center of Excellence
Grant Proposal Narrative

2. Proposal Narrative

c. Plan for Achieving the Goals

In this section specific activities associated with each of the Center's five goals are described. A timeline for implementing the activities is included at the end of this section.

Goal 1. Design and implement pre-service teacher education programs that attract qualified applicants and enable graduates to effectively teach children of poverty.

Activities. The first activity related to this goal is the selection of three Clinical Faculty members, one from each of the partner districts. Each Clinical Faculty must hold at least a master's degree and must have a minimum of five years of teaching experience. This activity will be completed within the first month after the proposal for the Center has been approved.

The second activity is the formation of a pre-service teacher education task force. Members of the task force will include the two Center Co-Directors, six FMU faculty (three from education and three from liberal arts), the three Clinical Faculty mentioned above, at least one associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction, at least one school principal, at least one researcher from the National Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk, at least one nationally-recognized teacher educator, and the directors of the two partner CHE-funded Centers of Excellence (see Section A).

The initial meeting of the task force will take place at a three-day institute held either in the late summer or early fall of Year 1. This institute is the third activity. The purpose of the institute is to identify the key components of a high quality pre-service teacher education program for teachers who teach children of poverty. Based on an initial review of current research and effective teacher education programs, the following components will be among those discussed during the institute:

an increase in cross-disciplinary collaboration within FMU with an appropriate emphasis on integrating education with appropriate academic disciplines;
an extension of field experiences beginning during a student's first year and continuing through to formal student teaching;
a modification of the delivery of core teacher education courses to incorporate problem-based learning and emphasize the connection between understanding and application; and
the inclusion of units or modules in existing courses or the development of new courses that focus on (1) understanding children of poverty, (2) involving parents in their children's education, (3) provided differentiated instruction, and (4) designing and implementing integrated curriculum.

Both the content and methods of delivery of existing courses will be examined. Replacing some existing courses with new courses will also be considered.

Prior to the end of the institute, the task force will develop a set of recommendations and a set of criteria that will be used to evaluate course and program revisions. Following the institute, the task force will continue to communicate by means of e-mail and telephone calls and will serve as the primary body to review course and program revisions and provide feedback using the aforementioned criteria.

The fourth activity is to make modifications in the existing pre-service teacher education programs to incorporate the task force's recommendations and to have the revised programs approved by appropriate FMU committees. Money from the Center grant will be used to release four FMU faculty members from a portion of their teaching responsibilities so they can work on the course and program development. All course revisions should be completed and approved by the end of Year 1 so that the changes can begin to be implemented in Year 2.

The fifth activity is to work with the South Carolina Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement (CERRA) to identify promising teacher cadets, to work with partner and participating school districts to provide scholarships for identified cadets, and to work with the Pee Dee Education Center to provide loans for identified cadets. This activity, which will begin in Year 2, is intended to organize and supplement the variety of recruitment activities currently in place.

The sixth activity is to work with partner districts to provide opportunities for after-school and summer employment of pre-service teachers as tutors. In preparation for this work, students will enroll in a non-credit three-weekend tutoring preparation mini-course. This activity will begin in Year 2 and continue throughout the life of the Center.

The seventh activity is to employ a marketing plan that highlights the new pre-service teacher education program and courses. The marketing plan will be used initially to inform prospective teachers throughout the state about the program (Year 2). Ultimately, by Year 4, the marketing plan will be expanded to help achieve the fourth Center goal and by Year 5, to help achieve the fifth and final Center goal (see Section B).

Goal 2. Provide high quality professional development programs that include collaborative research activities and the use of existing research evidence to improve curriculum, instruction, and assessment in schools serving large number of children of poverty.

Activities. The key aspect of this goal is the integration of research with professional development. Conducting action research and using existing research will be the basis for the design and implementation of all of the professional development activities supported by the Center. In this regard, the first activity is the development of a research agenda which will be based on consensually-identified teaching and learning problems and will connect teachers in the three partner districts with one another and with the FMU faculty. In order to develop this research agenda, a three-day conference will be held early in Year 1. The conference will be attended by selected FMU faculty, selected teachers and administrators from the partner districts, and the Coordinator of Research and Professional Development. The teachers will be selected based on their interest in collaborative action research and their experience in working successfully with children of poverty. During this conference a set of common teaching and learning problems will be identified and a series of action research studies to address these problems will be outlined.

The second activity is to provide training to selected teachers in the partner districts and FMU faculty, as needed, to improve their reading, use, and conduct of action research as well as their dissemination of research results. Lorin W. Anderson, a nationally-known educational researcher, will serve as the Coordinator of Research and Professional Development and provide the training. For teachers in the partner districts, participation in the training will be linked with course completion and re-certification credit. This activity will take place during Years 1 and 2.

The third activity is the establishment of a colloquium series, organized around the problems included in the research agenda. Initially, the focus of the series will be on increasing awareness and understanding of current research. In this case, the formats will be question-and-answer sessions with researchers and panel discussions (where panel members include researchers, FMU faculty members, and partner district teachers and administrators). In later years, the focus will shift to the presentation of the results of action research studies by FMU faculty members and partner district teachers. Attendance at the individual sessions will be open to teachers in both partner and participating districts. The colloquium series will be a permanent activity for the life of the Center.
Over the years it has become evident that teachers cannot teach and conduct action research simultaneously.

The fourth activity, then, is the hiring of two long-term substitute teachers who can work in the three partner districts on an ongoing basis to permit classroom teachers in these districts to participate in collaborative action research studies. This activity will begin in Year 2.

The fifth activity is planning and conducting collaborative research studies. The nature and purpose of the specific studies will be derived from the aforementioned research agenda. This activity will begin on a limited basis in Year 2 and continue throughout the life of the Center.

The sixth activity is the provision of opportunities for FMU faculty members and teachers in the partner districts to attend state, regional, and national conferences. Funding priority will be given to faculty and teachers who are presenting at these conferences. This activity will begin on a limited basis in Year 2 and continue throughout the life of the Center.

The seventh activity is to design a series of professional development materials and experiences based on the results of the action research as well as other research-based knowledge of teaching children of poverty. These materials and experiences will integrate concerns for curriculum, instruction, and assessment. To the extent possible, distance education will be the primary vehicle for delivering this professional development. This will allow teachers in all participating districts to benefit from the research and professional development activities of the Center. This activity will begin in Year 3 and should be fully operative by Year 5.

Goal 3. Equip teachers with the knowledge and skills needed to work effectively with parents, health and human service providers, and other community resources to meet the social, emotional, and physical needs of children of poverty and to serve as advocates for them in the school, community, and state.

Activities. One of the lessons learned from the failure of school reform efforts in communities inhabited by large numbers of children of poverty is the lack of what has been termed "local capacity" to make, support, and sustain the reform efforts. For the Center to be successful, then, it must work toward building local capacity. In simplest terms, local capacity is the ability of those who live and work in a community to solve the problems of the community without having to rely upon outside experts.

The first activity, which will be completed in August of Year 1, is hiring a School-Parent-Community (SPC) Liaison. The purpose of employing such a person is threefold: first, to give the Center a visible presence in the communities in which the three participating school districts are located; second, to gather information about how best to reach and help parents living in those communities; and third, to find ways of make the best use of community-based resources. To accomplish this purpose, the SPC Liaison will perform activities two through four.

The second activity is to determine how to best reach and help parents in the community. [Please note. The word “parents” is used throughout this section for ease of reading. It is understood that children may have legal guardians rather than parents involved in their lives. Thus, “parents” should be read as “parents/guardians.”] This activity will involve reviewing current research and by surveying and interviewing parents in the three communities. This focus should be on the best way of getting information to parents and providing for the needs of parents in fostering the academic, emotional, and social development of their children. This activity will begin during Year 1 and be completed during Year 2.

The third activity is to canvas each community to determine the willingness of various people, businesses, churches, and agencies to work with the schools and teachers to improve the quality of life for children of poverty. Based on what is learned from this canvas, the SCP Liaison will prepare a list of community-based resources for each community. The list will be included in a booklet that will be organized around the various problems or questions that parents, teachers, and administrators may encounter. That is, for each identified problem or question, the booklet will indicate where to go for help in solving the problem or answering the question. This activity will begin in Year 1 and be completed during Year 2.

The fourth activity is to develop a multi-media training program that increases teachers' awareness of the variety of community resources, ways of using these resources to meet the needs of children of poverty, ways of reaching and helping parents and other significant others in the children's lives, and ways of serving as advocates for children of poverty in the school, community, and state. This activity will begin in Year 2 and be ready for implementation in Year 3. Ultimately, by Year 5, the goal is for the training program to be made available for delivery via distance education (using videodisks and computer technology).

The fifth activity is to write grant proposals that provide the funding needed to connect school, home, and community resources in ways that improve the quality of life for children of poverty. This activity will begin in Year 1 and continue for the life of the Center. External funding is essential if the Center is to achieve Goal 5.

Goal 4. Develop a master's degree program leading to South certification as a Teacher of Children of Poverty and is linked with National Board Certification.

Activities. The collective experience of numerous educators and researchers since the passage in 1964 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is that children of poverty are as difficulty to educate as children with other special needs (i.e., those in the recognized special education population). Whereas special certification is needed for special education teachers, however, this is not the case for teachers who teach children of poverty. The Center will work toward changing this state of affairs.

The vehicle for making this change will be the development of a master's program that will lead to South Carolina certification as a Teacher of Children of Poverty. To accomplish this goal, the master's program must be academically sound while at the same time meeting various certification requirements. Work toward this goal will begin in Year 3 and will make use of the lessons learned from the Center's work toward Goals 1 through 3 during the first two years of Center funding.

The first activity is to reconstitute the pre-service teacher education task force described under the activities related to Goal 1. In designing the master’s degree program, the task force will use an approach similar to that used in the revision of the pre-service teacher education program. Once again, there will be dual focus on improving content and methods, with an emphasis on integrating them using Lee Shulman’s concept of “pedagogical content knowledge.” In their work, the task force would have to address several questions. For example, how can/should the master's degree program be connected with the revised pre-service teacher education program? Also, how can/should the master's degree program accommodate teachers who received their undergraduate degrees at other higher education institutions? This activity will be completed during Year 3.

The second activity is to work with appropriate representatives of the South Carolina Department of Education to ensure that the program, once developed, will lead to a new area of state certification. This may involve adding someone from the South Carolina Department of Education to the aforementioned task force. Also, Center staff will begin to explore with Department of Education representatives the possibility of recognizing teaching children of poverty as a critical needs area. This activity will take place during Years 3 and 4.

The third activity is to work with the FMU Foundation to secure money for an endowed professorship that will be used to hire a director of the master's degree program. Additional money for fellowships or graduate assistants to support an initial cohort of students will also be sought from the FMU Foundation. As needed, work with appropriate representatives of the South Carolina Department of Education to ensure that all qualified and accepted students have access to teacher loans. This activity will take place during Years 3 and 4.

The fourth activity is to hire a director, admit an initial cohort of students into the master's program, and begin to offer courses leading to the degree. This activity will begin late in Year 3 and be completed in Year 4. Full implementation of the master's program will take place in Year 5.

The fifth activity is to explore with representatives of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) ways in which a certification area for teaching children of poverty can be added to the areas in which NBPTS currently awards teacher certification. This activity would have to follow the successful completion of the second activity.

The sixth activity is to work with district superintendents and school boards to see that teachers who are certified in the area of Teaching Children of Poverty are appropriately compensated financially. This activity will take place in Years 4 and 5.

The seventh activity is to explore ways of delivering the master's degree program using distance education to some extent. This activity will take place in Year 5.

Goal 5. Become the premier resource in South Carolina for helping teachers learn how to provide a high quality education to all children of poverty.

Activities. This is the ultimate goal of the Center. To accomplish this goal, all of the previous four goals must be achieved. In addition, there is a need for sufficient technological resources to support the Center's attainment of this goal.

The first activity, then, is to form a study group to determine the technology resources that are available to the Center and the technology needs of the Center to achieve the fifth goal. The study group should include FMU faculty and staff as well as appropriate representatives of Florence-Darlington Technical College. This activity is to take place during Year 3.

The second activity is to write proposals for grants that would provide the funding needed to continue the activities related to Goals 1 through 4 as well as to expand the scope and mission of the Center. This activity would begin in Year 3 and continue through Year 5.

The third activity is to establish and maintain a technology-based resource center that includes print material, videotapes and videodisks, and computer software pertaining to the education of children of poverty. This activity would begin in Year 3 and continue through Year 5.

The fourth activity is to publish a quarterly series of position papers or policy papers on critical issues pertaining to the education of children of poverty. The Center would solicit authors for these papers from university faculty, researchers, legislators, and policy analysts. The audience for the papers would be administrators and policy makers. This activity would begin in Year 3 and continue through Year 5.

The fifth activity is to establish an on-line journal for teachers, both as contributors and as the primary audience. This journal would provide an opportunity for teachers to share lessons learned from their craft and research with their colleagues statewide and nationally. A common format would be established to increase the user-friendly nature of the journal (e.g., current research, promising programs, and exemplary teaching strategies and practices). This activity would begin in Year 3 and continue through Year 5.

The sixth activity is to establish one demonstration site in each partner district. Each demonstration site would be based on a research-based program for educating children of poverty. During particular periods of time educators from around the state (and region) would be invited to the demonstration sites so they could see the programs in practice and talk with teachers about the programs and their stages of implementation. This activity would begin in Year 4 and be fully implemented by Year 5.

The seventh activity is to establish a state-level professional association for educators interested in and committed to improving the quality of education for children of poverty. The association would be headquartered at FMU and would focus on improving the dialogue between academics and practitioners. Both groups would be represented in the leadership of the association. This activity would begin in Year 4 and be fully implemented by Year 5.