Partnership Annual Report 1999-2000
Special Projects/Grants/Contracts
These projects typically require some type of commitment of funds from one or more of the partners or from a funding agency to investigate new ideas and/or projects.
a. The Teacher of Color Project: St. Cloud Public Schools and SCSU College Of Education.
An agreement between SCSU and District 742 provided support for the preparation of future teachers of color who will agree to work in the St. Cloud Schools upon completion of the program. Goals of the program are 1)To address the needs for Minnesota children to be taught by teachers of color. 2) To increase the number of well qualified licensed teachers of color who are available to teach in Mn schools and 3) To provide access, financial support, and academic support to well-qualified teacher of color licensure candidates.
For 2000-2001, this project has proposed expansion of the project to include 6 school districts surrounding St. Cloud. A proposal for external funding to support this expansion has been submitted to the Mn Dept of Children, Family and Learning. Funding is pending (6/00). Les Green, COE Office of Cultural Diversity and Betsy Mahowald, coordinate this project.
b. Sauk Rapids/SCSU-COE Diversity Project.
The Sauk Rapids Staff (teachers and administrators) requested the opportunity to work with the COE Director of Cultural Diversity, Les Green and the Educational Administration Department to develop a 10 credit graduate package that will support teachers in developing expertise regarding diversity and initiating action research projects within their schools. Greg Vandell, Supt. in Sauk Rapids/Rice district was a key teaching faculty person and team leader. The first course was completed by more than 20 graduate students.
c. Eisenhower Math and Science Project for Elementary Teachers “Let’s Get Physical II.”
During the summer of 1998, 28 teachers from 15 schools districts participated in a 1 week math and science education intensive workshop on various principles of physical science and activities for teaching physical science to primary children. This very successful project was expanded during summer, 1999 to offer “more advanced” and in-depth experiences for the previous participants and their school teammates. Teams from schools were encouraged. Participants in the project presented their hands on activities at the Mn Teachers of Science conference held in St. Paul. Faculty with key responsibilities in the 1999-2000 project were Bev Kochmann and Kathy Ofstedahl. Pamm Minden served as fiscal director for the project.
d. Action Research Project—Faribault Schools.
Based on previous work with the school district, Virginia Pierce, Teacher Development, wrote a “seed grant” to support a one year pilot that would provide data concerning the outcomes of working with teaching to accomplish an applied research project. The team focuses on concepts of literacy during spring, 2000.
An expansion of the project will be completed during the 2000-2001 year if funding is received from a pending Spencer Foundation grant or from a pending National Council of Teachers of English grant award.
e. Headstart/ Reach-Up Evaluation Projects.
Glen Palm, Child and Family Studies has been involved in numerous Headstart and Reach-Up evaluation projects in the last 5 years. Glen has provided evaluation guidance to the St. Cloud Headstart Project regarding their family literacy projects. This year Glen is continuing his collaboration with District 518 (Worthington) to provide evaluation of their Even Start Family Literacy program. Glen represents these projects at the National Headstart evaluation sessions and has worked closely with district to encourage the continuation of grant funded initiatives.
f. Minnesota Highway Safety Center (MHSC): Alcohol Impaired Drivers on Snowmobiles.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources approached the MHSC to conduct a study that would investigate the effects of alcohol-impairment on drivers’ traction control of snowmobiles. Yamaha International joined the study by donating snowmobiles for use in this project as well as for training. SCSU has the first permanent off-highway vehicle operational training course in the nation. Partnering with industry and with various State agencies, this Center has numerous on-going partnership projects.
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