WASHINGTON — When a federal education official started telling NAFEO conference attendees Monday about a proposed competitive grant program for postsecondary institutions to do professional development for teachers in the area of STEM, Oakwood University Senior Vice President Timothy McDonald began to take notes.
“Some of us have been concerned that the Department of Education, under an Obama administration, has been drifting toward emphasis on K-12 to the detriment of higher education,” McDonald said. He later explained why the competitive grant program caught his attention.
“This program at least opens the doors for partnerships for universities to work with local school districts, so it’s a way for strengthening both,” McDonald said.
McDonald was referring to a $150 million competitive grant program called STEM Innovation Networks that is included in the Obama administration’s proposed fiscal 2014 budget.
Under the competitive grant program, local school districts can partner with institutions of higher education, nonprofits and other public agencies, as well as businesses, to “increase the number of students who are effectively prepared for postsecondary education and careers in STEM fields.”
Eligible applicants must develop “comprehensive plans for identifying, developing, testing and implementing evidence-based practices to provide rich STEM learning opportunities for students.” The STEM Networks must employ a “range of strategies” in areas such as recruitment, preparation and professional development of effective STEM educations.
McDonald said an existing program at Oakwood — known as the NASA/Oakwood University Pre-Service Teacher Institute, currently a two-week residential institute for college students who are preparing to teach in an elementary or middle school — would be a “good model” for a program under the grant if developed.
