Projects

The Higher Education Partnerships Teacher Quality Consortium

The Columbus City Schools (CCS) through collaboration between the Columbus Education Association (CEA) and its Higher Education Partnerships (HEP) has formed the Higher Education Partnerships Teacher Quality Consortium (HEPTQC). The consortium intends to create and implement specialized improved urban teacher preparation and targeted professional development, with a particular focus on math and science at the middle school level, to increase urban student academic achievement.

Purpose

Columbus City Schools and its partners propose to (a) increase student achievement levels of its middle school students in math and science; (b) better prepare many of its middle school teachers to effectively deliver a standards-based curriculum to a diverse student population; and (c) to improve the retention rate of its apprentice teachers. The HEPTQC will use its collaborative infrastructure to integrate this initiative into its ongoing recruitment, retention, and professional development refinement efforts, while helping teachers meet new licensure standards in Ohio.

Activities

Training in content enrichment math and science curriculum; the identification, modeling and dissemination of evidence-based, culturally relevant best teaching practices; ongoing mentoring support; and meaningful clinical field experiences accomplished with purposeful placements in urban classrooms. The “urban teacher strand” will target two groups: pre-service teachers at the partners’ institutions who are recruited, admitted, and preparing to teach math and/or science and in-service teachers in the Columbus Public Schools in the apprentice and professional stages of their careers. Additional assistance will be provided to the apprentice group with 2-5 years of teaching experience through the creation of a structured teacher mentoring program, providing ongoing mentoring support for each apprentice teacher.

HEP’s Grant Writing Team

Aligned expertise of collaborative partners secures large scale sponsored projects to meet the needs of urban school reform in Columbus Public Schools.

Objectives & Activities

1. Build capacity to partner on large scale grant opportunities.	Hold monthly meeting of Sponsored Project and Office of Development officials from each partnering institution. Share information on mission, goals, expertise, interests and programs in each partner institution related to urban school reform.
2. Identify federal, state, and private sector research, program and training RFP opportunities related to urban public school reform issues.	Partners review currently available and yearly planned available RFPs for potential collaboration. Columbus Public Schools verifies need and ability to support the RFP requirements. Establish collaborative priorities and develop work plans.
3. Identify and integrate partner expertise in the development of research, program and training grant proposals.	Prepare collaborative proposals which reflect and blends the expertise and resources of the participating partners. Each partner participates in the development of various segments of the proposal and budget.

Outcomes

Short-term outcome: Increased capability to compete for highly competitive large-scale education awards.
Midterm outcome: Increased momentum results in increased number of collaborative proposals and awards.
Long-term outcome: Increased number of programs in Columbus City Schools designed to raise student achievement.

Accomplishments

• Met monthly to share expertise and programs; Met weekly during proposal development time; Identified priority needs for CCS; Identified and developed collaborative proposal to responds to those needs.
  
• Developed a preproposal (2/03) to U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education, in response to RFP “Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education “FIPSE.” Proposal Title: A Program for Increasing Postsecondary Success Rates of Urban School Students” Received call for full proposal. Final proposal submitted, but not funded.
  
• Established that proposals may include all partners or may focus on individual institutions. Example: The Ohio State University, Columbus State Community College and Columbus Public Schools partnered on a FIPSE proposal “A Program for Increasing Postsecondary Success Rates Among Urban Students” - Project Director – Bruce Tuckman, PhD, The Ohio State University. The project was awarded $323,633 over a three year period.
  
• Based on comments from FIPSE Round One, the proposal was split in two. Proposal One includes all partners: Preproposal was submitted 9/03, “Implementation of a Higher Education Partnership to Support Learning Urban Schools,” Co-Directors: Nancy Nestor-Baker, The Ohio State University, and Diane Ging, The Columbus City Schools. Proposal Two includes Columbus City Schools and Otterbein College: Preproposal submitted 9/03, “Project Sail,” Co-Directors. We are waiting to hear the results of the first review for both proposals.
  
• Working on development of 04 collaborations based on potential identified RPPs.
  
• Project GRAD Columbus used the Otterbein campus for its 4-week summer institute 2002-2005. Approximately 100 high school students from Linden McKinley High School attended the institute to increase their academic abilities and to experience a college campus environment. In 2005, six Otterbein faculty members served as instructors during the academy.

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