| The School of Education at North Carolina A&T State University has been awarded two grants to enhance efforts to recruit students into teacher education and to prepare them to integrate culturally relevant teaching practices into special education.
The Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education awarded Drs. Cathy Kea and Gloria Elliott $1.2 million each for their work on Project CREED (Culturally Responsive Exceptional Educators for Diversity) and Project PAPERS (Preparing Adapted Physical Educators to Render Services), respectively.
“Each of these projects demonstrates our faculty’s commitment to improving teachers’ preparedness to engage students from diverse backgrounds through high-quality instruction,” said Dr. Anthony Graham, interim dean of the School of Education. “Immersing candidates in innovative, research-verified instructional practices that leverage K-12 students’ cultural backgrounds as tools for engagement in the classroom rather than tools for exclusion will certainly have a positive impact on their learning experiences.”
Kea, a professor of curriculum and instruction, will use the funds to produce and support well qualified, culturally competent pre-service general and special educators who can effectively deliver data-based intensive intervention instruction in high need school districts, high poverty and low performing schools in diverse communities for Project CREED.
Elliott, an assistant professor of human performance and leisure studies, will use the funds over a five-year period to recruit and prepare highly qualified adapted physical education teachers at the master’s level who will be able to render high quality physical education services for diverse learners with disabilities in public school settings so they may safely and successfully engage in physical activities in the least restricted environment in rural, suburban, or urban settings with Project PAPERS. |
