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MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. (Feb. 11, 2014) — Milligan College is the recipient of a $62,000 grant that will provide free Common Core training and three hours of free graduate school credit for 30 local teachers.
The Improving Teacher Quality (ITQ) Grant Program is a federally funded program that provides grants to public and private higher education institutions. It is administered in Tennessee by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. Milligan was the only institution in the region to receive the grant this year.
Milligan’s “Common Core State Standards (CCSS): Reading Across the Disciplines” grant will help secondary teachers in grades 6-12 practice and refine their teaching skills, as well as help them develop effective methods for incorporating “CCSS in Reading: Literature and Informational Text” strategies in their instruction.
“We are encouraging cross-disciplinary teams of two to four teachers from the same school to apply because there is so much cross-over in subjects such as history and English at the high school level,” said Dr. Lyn Howell, chair of Milligan’s education area. “The teams will work together to integrate Common Core components into their instruction and create a bank of lesson plans that will be shared among participants for use in their respective classrooms.”
Milligan partnered with Elizabethton City Schools, Hamblen County Board of Education, Hawkins County Board of Education and Sullivan County Board of Education to offer the grant, but secondary teachers at any local public or private school are welcome to register for the program as long as slots remain available.
Participants will attend a pre-assessment meeting this spring, and a five-day workshop from June 9-13. A post-assessment and onsite visit takes place in fall 2014.
There is no cost for participants. They will receive a stipend, and all of their materials―including a set of resource texts and a bound copy of the lesson plans all of the participants created―are provided. Upon successful completion of the program, participants will receive three hours of graduate credit to apply as elective credit toward a master of education (M.Ed.) degree at Milligan.
Milligan offers two M.Ed. programs—the initial licensure program (for students seeking teaching licensure) and the advanced program.
The advanced program is for already-licensed teachers who want to add endorsement areas or prepare for board certification. The 36-credit-hour advanced program integrates theory, action research and reflective practice and is designed to increase both the quality and quantity of the educational experiences for teachers in professional education.
“Common Core has dominated headlines and the attention of educators across the nation,” Howell said. “We are pleased that we received this grant to offer valuable training to our area teachers who work hard every day to refine their teaching skills and integrate the best methods for incorporating CCSS in their instruction.
“For those who are interested in pursuing an M.Ed., this workshop also is an opportunity to work with Milligan’s fine education faculty and get three credit hours out of the way at no cost.”
Registration is currently under way for secondary teachers who are interested in the program. Preference will be given to applications of teams of two to four teachers from the same school; one team member should be a secondary English or language arts teacher. Applicants will be notified by March 1 of their acceptance or denial.
To learn more, call Karen Hill at 423.461.8927. For more information about Milligan’s M.Ed., visit www.milligan.edu/MEd.