What are Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants?

Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants Program for States and Partnerships, which is part of Title II of the Higher Education Act was originally authorized in 1998, these grants are divided into three categories: state grants, partnership grants, and teacher recruitment grants. Federal funds for all three sets of grants totaled $59.9 million in FY 2006. According to law, 45% of the appropriated funds are for state grants, 45% are distributed for partnership grants, and 10% are available for recruitment grants. All grants awarded under Title II of the Higher Education Act require recipients to match the federal funds in some way. State grant recipients must provide a 50% match from nonfederal sources in cash or in kind. Partnership and recruitment grant recipients must provide a 25% match in the first year, a 35% match in the second year, and a 50% match for each succeeding year. These matches also may be in cash or in kind. Thus, all federal funds awarded under Title II of the Higher Education Act are leveraging additional funds from nonfederal sources.

According to the statute, the purposes of Title II of the Higher Education Act are to—

• Improve student achievement.
• Improve the quality of the current and future teaching force by improving the preparation of prospective teachers and enhancing professional development activities.
• Hold institutions of higher education accountable for preparing teachers who have the necessary teaching skills and are highly competent in the academic content areas in which the teachers plan to teach, such as mathematics, science, English, foreign languages, history, economics, art, civics, government, and geography, including training in the effective uses of technology in the classroom.
• Recruit highly qualified individuals, including individuals from other occupations, into the teaching force.

How can my institution apply for a Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant?

Please visit http://www.ed.gov/programs/heatqp/applicant.html for more information.

Where can I learn more about AACTE members who have benefited from Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants?

AACTE is pleased to bring you Teacher Education Reform: The Impact of Federal Investments. This publication was conceived as a response to the frequent requests AACTE has received over the past few years for information about activities under way in the Higher Education Act’s Title II Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants. These vital grants are intended to support a range of reforms in teacher preparation, and there is a great eagerness among policy makers and others to learn about their activities and their impact, particularly as Congress moves forward in reauthorizing the Higher Education Act.

Effective preparation of tomorrow’s teachers has never been more critical to America’s future. Global competition is challenging our nation’s stature as the preeminent economic powerhouse. Calls for enhancing America’s competitiveness come from our leaders in every sector—particularly the business community, which is increasingly challenged to find qualified workers for the technologically demanding jobs of today and tomorrow. Journalists such as Tom Friedman (The World Is Flat) and scientists at the National Academy of Science (Rising Above the Gathering Storm) have issued clarion calls to policy makers that action is needed to turn around troubling trends.

This volume provides evidence of that progress. Schools of education are routinely partnering with PK-12 schools to ensure teacher candidates have in-class clinical experience—many in the context of exciting “professional development schools.” Modeled after teaching hospitals, these PK-12–higher education partnerships provide rich collaborations that often feature schools of arts and sciences. It is not unusual for new teachers to already have a full year of supervised student teaching under their belts as they approach their first jobs. These new teachers are not daunted by the needs of their students. They are ready to provide instruction, measure achievement, individualize where needed, motivate and excite student learning, and be fully accountable for the performance of their students.

Schools of education are working hard to prepare the highly qualified teachers required by the No Child Left Behind Act. Preparing students to teach in shortage areas such as special education, math, and science is a priority for schools of education, as is preparing teachers for hard-to-staff schools in urban and rural areas. Teacher educators are working with career changers—scientists, mathematicians, engineers—who want to enter our PK-12 schools as effective teachers. They are recruiting students majoring in math, physics, chemistry, and engineering to study teaching so that they will become highly qualified math and science teachers. Technology and distance education have opened new horizons for reaching into classrooms and across the country to share research-based instructional practices.

Our work is fueled by partnerships—with school districts, with states, with the business community, with community organizations, with the philanthropic community, and with the federal government, which provides essential leadership and financial resources that generate reforms and leverage additional partnerships. We are pleased to feature the results of some of those partnerships in this volume—initiatives supported by Title II of the Higher Education Act. We hope that you will use this volume as an information resource that documents some of the many reforms under way in teacher education.

View the full report at http://www.aacte.org/Governmental_Relations/titleIIprofilesrprt.pdf

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