Education funding opportunities:
1. High quality teaching and learning in all core curricular areas (math, science, language and literacy, social sciences and arts) achieved by raising standards and expectations, capacity building and infrastructures that sustain continuous school improvement in grades prekindergarten to 12th
2. Strengthening teacher and school leader preparation by transforming university programs to include broader resources of universities and by increasing teacher licensure standards
Education is essential to a healthy society and to the lifelong development of individuals, who must continually adjust to a fast-changing workplace and an increasingly diverse civil society. Effective education is the bedrock of an engaged citizenry, a high quality of life and a productive workforce.
Achieving these goals requires strengthening education at all levels. This goes beyond external high stakes accountability and stand-alone projects. It requires a broad vision and set of aligned strategies. It means developing a comprehensive curriculum and making it available in all schools, with clear sequencing of learning in each subject. It means supporting appropriate learning opportunities from birth to preschool and increasing opportunities for productive postsecondary learning, plus greater coherence across education levels.
Ultimately, we have to raise expectations and goals. We know what high quality education looks like because it is offered in some schools. Some public schools, schools serving affluent communities and some private schools provide high quality education. We believe that quality of education should be available for all children. Our aim is to strengthen teaching to that level of rigor and expectation across all schools.
We have to build the capacity of educators to teach at this higher level. We have to push for policy changes that are informed by research and best practices. And we have to develop schools that continuously examine teaching to ensure that all students get supports to enable them to succeed.
Given the breadth of this task, the Trust focuses on strengthening schools and systems and improving preparation of future educators for low-resourced communities in Cook County.
Grant making in Education supports Community Goal #1: Advancing opportunities for human and economic development.
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Funding Opportunity 1: High quality teaching and learning in all core curricular areas (math, science, language and literacy, social sciences and arts) achieved by raising standards and expectations, capacity building and infrastructures that sustain continuous school improvement in grades pre-kindergarten to 12th
Every child should have access to a high quality education, one that develops critical thinking skills, an open mind, an understanding that there are multiple ways to solve a problem, intellectual curiosity and effective oral and written communication. Learning these skills requires teachers who have deep understanding of the content and how children learn that content, who work together to create strong developmental pathways from grade to grade and within each subject and who remain continuous learners throughout their careers. School and district leaders need deep understanding of what good teaching looks like in each discipline and clear knowledge of what is required to achieve it; they should focus on providing the supports teachers and schools need to continuously engage in the practice of improvement.
The Trust seeks to develop teachers and schools that exemplify these characteristics. From prior work in Chicago, we have learned that improving districts and schools requires increasing what we expect children can learn; developing teachers’ abilities to understand these high level goals and help children achieve them; and supporting teachers working together within and across grade levels.
Helping teachers teach to higher levels, differentiate supports in order to reach all children, and collaborate intensively with peers requires new knowledge about subject matter, children’s development and working jointly. This new knowledge for teaching often requires the expertise and resources of experts in the disciplines. These resources may be found in universities, informal science institutions or other organizations.
Outcomes Sought
Short-term
- Evidence of higher standards and expectations in the content areas.
- Increased number of teachers taking courses toward endorsements or advanced degrees in subject areas.
- High participation in professional development that increases teachers’ knowledge and pedagogical skills in the content areas.
- Evidence of the development and strengthening of school infrastructures, including teacher collaboration and leadership focused on improving teaching and learning.
Long-term
- Increased number of teachers with endorsements and advanced degrees in subject areas.
- Increased number of students succeeding in algebra.
- Improved student performance in content areas.
Our Funding
The Trust has provided supports to school districts, including the Chicago Public Schools, to partner with area universities to strengthen teaching and learning. Going forward, projects receiving support in this area must:
- Focus on a subject area;
- Be aligned with the Common Core State Standards and other strong curricular frameworks;
- Use research-based best practices and diagnostic assessments to guide instruction;
- Build teacher knowledge in curricular content through graduate course work and in-school modeling;
- Share practices across and within schools and systems;
- Provide opportunities for teachers to work collaboratively within and across grade levels;
- Build coaching and leadership capacity in schools, areas and districts;
- Provide different levels of support to schools based on their strengths and needs;
- Include strong program evaluation; and
- Include financial and other commitments from all partners.
The Trust will solicit proposals and make decisions based on the capacity and expertise of the districts and partner organizations to support the work in schools.
Requests for Proposals
Requests for proposals will be announced as they become available.
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Funding Opportunity 2: Strengthening teacher and school leader preparation by transforming university programs to include broader resources of universities and by increasing teacher licensure standards
In addition to strengthening existing schools, we must strengthen the preparation of new educators. Significant shifts are needed to enable teachers and school leaders to address increasingly complex subject matter as well as diverse populations of students with increasingly varied strengths and needs. This challenge requires that educators have deep knowledge in the subjects they are teaching and an understanding of how to teach those subjects. Accomplishing this requires transforming university education programs to draw on the broader resources of universities. Also critical is improving licensure standards to require increased content knowledge, pedagogical skills and knowledge of teaching special needs and English language learners. In its report
To Touch the Future (PDF), the American Council on Education in 2002 charged college and university presidents to “put the education of teachers at the center of the institutional agenda and to accept the challenge and responsibility to lead constructive change.” University presidents, provosts, academic deans and deans of schools of education must work together to build this new agenda for teacher and school leader preparation.
The work also requires alignment of policies at the state (The Illinois Board of Higher Education and the Illinois State Board Education) and district levels to support more rigorous credentialing systems. In addition, it requires a partnership with schools and districts to support intentional placements for student teaching and pre-service clinical hours with strong teaching teams prior to novice teachers’ assuming full responsibility for classrooms.
Outcomes Sought
Short-term
- Evidence that departments of Education and Arts and Sciences are working together to strengthen teacher preparation coursework.
- Evidence that teacher candidates have opportunities to learn how to effectively teach English language learners and students with special education needs.
- Improved partnerships with districts in placement and support of new teachers.
Long-term:
- Increased number of teachers prepared to teach core subjects at high levels.
- Policy shifts at the university, district and state level that support this work.
Our Funding
Grants in this arena will be considered supplemental to and supportive of financial commitments made by the universities and/or state or federal grants. Criteria used to select institutions for grants will include:
- Universities that are committed to the institutional changes required to transform their professional education programs and that include a partnership between their colleges of Education and colleges of Arts and Sciences;
- Strengthened clinical and induction experiences for new teachers with attention paid to core instructional subjects;
- Strong program evaluation; and
- Financial and other commitments from all partners.
Requests for Proposals
Requests for proposals will be released in this area at a date to be announced.
Contact Us
Please direct all inquiries to
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