I attended a press conference in Covington's Holmes High School yesterday, where we announced that Toyota USA Foundation has awarded a $500,000 grant to a University of Kentucky program designed to help K-12 teachers develop more effective methods of teaching math and science in 13 central and northern Kentucky urban school districts.
The grant will allow the UK Partnership Institute for Mathematics and Science Education Reform (PIMSER) to provide teacher-driven teams assisted by university and college faculty in developing localized strategies for improving teaching and/or student learning in their mathematics or science programs.
As I stated at the press conference, it is always exciting to receive a grant of this magnitude. Making it more rewarding, however, is that the Toyota gift will allow UK to expand a successful STEM education model approach that was pioneered by our Appalachian Math and Science Partnership.
That model, PIMSER's Partnership Enhancement Project (PEP), will provide planning guidelines and training to teachers to help determine their district's students' specific mathematics and science needs. Math and science professors at UK and several other colleges and universities use research based strategies to provide intervention plans for those specific needs. The teachers also will receive training on how to write professional development plans.
The professional development guidelines could support a variety of proposals or plans. Examples of possible proposals are:
-- Improving student achievement scores for mathematics and science
-- Implementing and improving assessment methods
-- Improving academic subgroup scores
-- Improving classroom instructional strategies to include problem-based learning and inquiry
-- Improving data-driven decision making for classroom teachers and distributed leadership, and
-- Increasing collaboration between K-12 school districts' faculty and university/college faculty.
Participating school districts are, in northern Kentucky, Bellevue Independent, Boone County, Campbell County, Covington Independent, Dayton Independent, Kenton County, Newport Independent, Silver Grove Independent, and the Diocese of Covington Department of Catholic Schools. In central Kentucky, participating districts are Bourbon County, Fayette County, Scott County, and the Diocese of Lexington Catholic Schools.
In addition to UK, Bluegrass Community and Technical College, Georgetown College, Northern Kentucky University, Thomas Moore College, and Transylvania University will provide faculty mentors and technical support.