Unification Grant

Saint Joseph College

 

Connecticut State Improvement Grant

IHE Unification
of
Teacher Preparatory Programs
to
Meet the Diverse Learning Needs of Students

 

OVERVIEW

 

Saint Joseph College has received a grant award from the Connecticut State Department of Education Bureau of Special Education and Pupil Services to develop a professional development process. Through this grant, higher education faculty in teacher preparation programs and college faculty work in a unified manner to prepare future teachers to work with children and adolescents with diverse and special learning needs. (Click here for a PowerPoint overview.)

The proposal for this grant was grounded in the belief system expressed by the Connecticut State Board of Education that "all children are unique and are influenced by cultural, linguistic, intellectual, psychological, social, and economic factors. These factors create a need for a varied educational environment that provides for and accommodates each child's strengths and areas of improvement. The Board also believes that a unified and coordinated continuum of educational opportunities and supports, designed to address individual needs, serves and benefits all students. The Board encourages the implementation of educational models that promote multiple instructional strategies which encourage and accommodate students in the general environment to the maximum extent appropriate. It is the responsibility and obligation of educators to design and provide teaching strategies, methods, and materials that are suitable for each individual learner" (1996).

Saint Joseph College plays a vital role in the preparation of the state's teachers, particularly in the field of special education. It ranks second in the state in the numbers certified to teach children with disabilities, 1-12. With its emphasis on engaging regular and special education teachers with content area teachers, this project will have a direct impact on both our regular and special education teacher candidates. It will address their ability to meet the diverse needs of all students, not only those with special education needs, and increase their marketability.

The proposal, therefore, aims to create a workplace culture that supports greater collaboration between faculty who teach within general and special education programs, and also between these programs and the college faculty at large. A process that models change through collaboration puts the impetus for change toward unification in the hands of the faculty. Interested faculty are the ones who will envision their ways of promoting unification, create their own approaches to unification, and implement their ideas to promote unification with their students. In short, change will occur from within as a result of each collaborative faculty effort.

These are the main benefits of the grant for faculty at SJC.

  • Funds are provided to encourage collaboration across departments and to promote multidisciplinary perspectives.
  • Support is given for the value and importance of a strong liberal arts education for prospective teachers by enhancing the teaching-learning connection.
  • The approach is a faculty initiated, bottom-up approach to removing barriers which historically separate general and special education, as well as to remove barriers which separate both of these programs from the college at large.

 

A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT APPROACH

• Faculty-led initiatives

• Collaborative faculty teams
between education faculty and college faculty, and
between teachers from general and special education

• Technical assistance in submitting a proposal

• Results focused on student learning

If you did not attend the informational presentations and discussions about the grant, we encourage you to arrange a personal or small group meeting where we can address your questions, facilitate your ideas, or assist you with the application process.

 

The Professional Development Focus

The Unification Grant is aligned with the national standards for professional development as defined by the National Staff Development Council. In doing so, the application process features

1. A system-focused design which involves a signification cross-section of the college and the potential to involve the greater Hartford community.

2. A constructivist approach where activities are designed, implemented, and assessed by the participants themselves.

3. An evaluation system that focuses on clearly defined results.

This last feature is key because data on the impact of unification initiatives on college students' learning will be gathered from every awarded project. Data will be included in an analysis of promising practices which will be shared with administration. In this way, the present project not only has the potential to result in significant systems change but also has the strong potential for sustainability and replication.

 

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