CEHD awarded teacher prep grant from the Raise Your Hand Texas Foundation

The Raise Your Hand Texas Foundation awarded a three-year grant to the College of Education and Human Development to provide support to teacher preparation programs in the college. The grant, amounting to $150,000 each year, will enhance teacher quality and update approaches to continuous improvement.

The funding grew out of a new partnership between RYHT and the colleges of education in the Texas A&M University System, called We Teach Texas.

Created and led by Dr. Shonda Gibson, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, We Teach Texas is a system-wide campaign to improve teacher preparation at each member university.

We Teach Texas is also part of the Raising Texas Teachers program, launched in 2017 by the RYHT Foundation. The program is for aspiring teachers and aims to invest $50 million over 10 years in scholarship funding and other ongoing support for students committed to a career in teaching. It includes several initiatives and partnerships with universities across the state.

Already underway, CEHD’s Raising Texas Teachers committee has identified three areas of improvement for 2021: (1) revamping the instrument used by university supervisors to give feedback to teacher candidates; (2) restructuring content to field teacher education coursework; and (3) enhancing collaborative efforts with local school district partners in the Brazos Valley.

“CEHD has long been one of the vanguards for expertise and innovation in educator preparation. Faculty are gearing up to reimagine the way that teachers are recruited, prepared and supported in the field. Such progress is not easy in light of all that our education professionals and learners have faced over the last year, but we are up for the challenge,” said Dr. Valerie Hill-Jackson, Assistant Dean of Educator Preparation and School Partnerships.

Learn more about Raise Your Hand Texas and the impacts these programs will have across the state.

For media inquiries, contact Ashley Green.