The U.S. Department of Education says the primary purposes of the Teacher Quality Partnership program were to improve student achievement and the quality of new prospective teachers.
“It is hard to overestimate the importance of federal investment to build capacity in our education system,” said Alison Hilsabeck, dean of the National College of Education at National Louis University in Chicago, one of the dozens of colleges and universities that have been grantees of the program — known as TQP — since the five-year program was launched in 2009.
“We need grants, like the TQPs, that can create the space for innovation and the resources for multiple stakeholders to collaborate in improving our education system,” Hilsabeck said.
Hilsabeck made her remarks on Capitol Hill during a policy briefing titled “Teacher Preparation Reform: The Case for Federal Investment.” The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, or AACTE, convened the briefing in an effort to convince Congress to renew funding for the TQP program, which was initially authorized at $300 million under Title II of the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008.
New funding for the program is not included in the Obama administration’s fiscal 2014 budget.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, the primary purposes of the program were to improve student achievement and the quality of new prospective teachers by “improving the preparation of prospective teachers and enhancing professional development activities for teachers.”
It was also meant to hold teacher preparation programs at institutions of higher education “accountable for preparing highly qualified teachers, and to recruit highly qualified individuals, including minorities and individuals from other occupations, into the teaching force,” the department states.
