One of UMKC`s largest grants awarded to IUE!
By Mary Stilen
The US Department of Education awarded $8.36 million to the Institute for Urban Education (IUE), marking one of the largest grants in UMKC’s history. The Teacher Quality Partnership Grant Program will allow for expansion of the IUE’s commitment to preparing teachers to teach in urban schools. Jennifer Waddell, Ph.D., School of Education’s Assistant Professor and Program Director for the IUE is the principal investigator and project director for the grant that will launch the IUE Change Agents for Urban School Excellence (CAUSE) program. This program will broaden the scope, depth, and impact of the current practices used by IUE and the School of Education (SOE). Currently, the IUE partners with three school districts- Kansas City, Mo., Kansas City, Kan., and Hickman Mills. This grant will allow the SOE and IUE to continue and expand their efforts on increasing the success rate for new and in-service teachers in high-need schools.
“We, the IUE, School of Education, and UMKC are now positioned not only to continue our work but to expand and become a national model for urban teacher preparation. This award not only represents an investment in IUE, it represents an investment in improving the quality of education and the quality of life for students in urban Kansas City,” said Ed Underwood, Ph.D., Executive Director of the IUE.
In only five years the IUE has become a nationally recognized program and graduated its first students in May 2009. Each student is currently teaching in one of the partner districts and continues to be mentored through the IUE program to ensure a successful transition into their early years of teaching.
“Since this was a very competitive and rigorous national grant competition, securing this grant through a peer-reviewed process suggests that the School of Education and IUE’s focus on urban education is cutting-edge, compelling and nationally relevant,” said Wanda Blanchett, Ph.D., Dean and Ewing Marion Kauffman/Missouri Endowed Chair in Teacher Education. “More importantly, this grant and the national vote of confidence recognize the potential of IUE to be a model of best practice in the preparation of educators for today’s urban schools.”