The University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Southern Arkansas University at Magnolia are to receive a combined $3.6 million in funding and technical assistance from expert partners over the next three years to increase the quantity, quality and diversity of the state's teacher workforce.
Forward Arkansas is providing the phase II implementation grants to the two institutions as part of its Educator Preparation Program Design Collaborative. The collaborative was started in 2021 as a competitive grant program to help universities build up the pool of elementary and secondary school teachers in the state.
"We are very excited to support SAU and UA-Little Rock. They developed bold, innovative plans for transformation and have the potential to dramatically impact the teacher pipeline in the regions they serve as well as the state more broadly," Ben Kutylo, executive director of Forward Arkansas, said.
Elements of the plans include:
• Year-long paid residency programs where teacher candidates spend the year working in a partner school as a resident teacher, all while still in training and with the assistance of devoted mentor teachers.
• Cooperative partnerships with regional school districts.
• The collection of comprehensive data on teacher candidates and graduates in their first five years in the field.
"Our department truly believes that every candidate 'comes with a purpose and leaves with a promise,'" Neelie Dobbins, chair of Southern Arkansas University's department of teacher education, said. "Our promise is to prepare every candidate to be day-one-ready teachers to help all learners be successful."
UALR is partnering with local school districts to oversee the residency program that will begin during the 2023 fall semester.
"Our intention is to become the No. 1 provider of day-one-ready teachers in the state," Sarah Beth Estes, dean of the College of Humanities, Arts, Social Studies and Education, said.
"We are looking forward to providing our future teachers paid residencies. By the time they graduate, our teacher candidates will be exposed to everything they will need to know by the time they step foot in the classroom as teachers. We are committed to improving teacher preparation so that we can also improve teacher recruitment and retention, thereby improving the learning environment for children in Arkansas."
Forward Arkansas -- established in 2014 with grants from the Winthrop Rockefeller and Walton Family foundations to improve outcomes for Arkansas students -- also announced this week the continuation of the overall Design Collaborative for all eight universities that were initially selected for the program's first phase. The eight institutions will be able to continue support of their work and provide ongoing opportunities for collaboration for two more years.
Sixteen of Arkansas's 19 universities with educator preparation programs applied for the Design Collaborative, and eight were chosen to participate: Arkansas State University, Arkansas Tech University, Harding University, Southern Arkansas University, University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and University of Central Arkansas.