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USM Makes the Grade With Maryland Teachers

With four major K-16 initiatives-Project Learning in Communities (LINC); Education Equals Mentoring, Coaching and Cohorts (E=mc²); Vertically Integrated Partnerships K-16 (VIP K-16); and Change and Sustainability in Higher Education (CASHE)--the University System of Maryland (USM) is using a successful multi-faceted approach to tackle key issues in teacher training, recruitment, and retention.

USM's resources provide significant benefits for teachers in the classroom. "There is a big difference between book-learned science and actually working in a lab with professional scientists and understanding how scientific inquiries play out in their everyday work," says Montgomery County science teacher Jason Gvazdauskas. He is a participant in VIP K-16's ExPERT program which helps teachers learn to incorporate inquiry-based activities into their science classes. "This is a good opportunity for science teachers to know what is going on in cutting-edge research labs and how scientific research works beyond the textbook."

Through collaborations with its member institutions, Maryland community colleges, local school systems, and private sector groups, USM offers a variety of projects to support both current and future educators. In addition to the ExPERT program, the projects include academic programs that offer an alternative path to certification for career changers and a project to develop self-sustaining coaching programs for several schools in Baltimore City.

Working to improve the pipeline of future educators, USM also is collaborating to develop a curriculum for statewide "education academies" where high-school students interested in a career in education will be able to earn college credit for courses taken while still in high school.

USM's partnership approach to teacher training has helped it secure federal grants to support its programs. Project LINC and E=mc² are both funded by the U.S. Department of Education and VIP K-16 is funded by the National Science Foundation.

"By working with every level of K-16 education, we can be sure we are using the university system's resources to address the most urgent needs of Maryland educators," says Nancy Shapiro, a USM associate vice chancellor for academic affairs who directs the system's K-16 Partnership initiatives. "Through these partnerships and the resources we can gather, we've been able to expand some successful programs already operating at USM institutions and to introduce new programs that directly address needs expressed by local school systems."

Kelly O'Connor is a faculty research assistant at the University of Maryland, College Park, who is leading a mentoring program for teachers in Baltimore City through the E=mc² program. She says, "Since we're working directly with the school system, we can recruit full-time mentors who are already very familiar with Baltimore City schools. We hope that this will give the schools the tools that they need to continue the mentorship program on their own."

Perhaps most importantly, the positive results of the USM's teacher training programs are revealed through classroom achievement. "Our scores on the Maryland state assessment exams are up at all grade levels in both reading and math since we began participating in the E=mc² program," says Dawn Shirey, principal at Commodore John Rodgers Elementary School in Baltimore City. "The coaching provided by the program really helped the teachers in my school learn effective classroom strategies and to build a professional development community with each other."

For more information on USM's K-16 initiatives, visit: http://mdk16.usmd.edu.

Contact:

Mary Carroll-Mason

mcmason@usmd.edu

301.445.2756