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UW-Milwaukee PK-16 Comprehensive Leadership Grant: Enhancing Teacher Development on Behalf of Native American Learners

UW-Milwaukee’s 2007-08 PK-16 Teacher Quality Initiative Planning Grant provided funds to conduct a pilot needs assessment to better understand how the requirements within Act 31 were being met to support the preparation of non-minority teachers to work with Native American populations in the state of Wisconsin. The planning grant allowed us to conduct this pilot study, validate the research instruments, and establish a network of institutional contacts across the state for more extensive research on how the spirit of teacher education and licensing written into PI 34 is impacting traditionally-underserved pupils in Wisconsin schools.

The preliminary findings from the pilot project suggest a chasm between the learning opportunities Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) provide students of teaching around Act 31 and the support and services they provide Initial Educators in local school districts about Wisconsin Indian tribes and bands, history, culture, and sovereignty.
 
The 2008-09 PK-16 Teacher Quality Initiative Renewal Grant aims to share these data and findings with the Clear Sky Institute and other members of the UWM School of Education PK-16 Leadership Team and Partner-Stakeholders. This sharing is expected to result in further collaborations with these stakeholders and to yield goals to improve teacher quality in three core areas:

(1) Preservice courses;
(2) District inservices; and
(3) Professional Development Plan (PDP) supports at license-renewal centers across the state.

In addition, the pilot study’s focus on Act 31 grounds future UW-Milwaukee research projects that examine the intricate links among the Wisconsin Quality Educator Initiative (PI 34), Initial educators licensed under the new rules and statutes, and the learning opportunities provided the state’s youngest citizens.

Act 31’s critical attribute – its focus on Native American learners – underscores the diversity of Wisconsin’s learners. At the same time, it is just one component of an institution’s conceptual framework required under the Wisconsin Quality Educator Initiative (PI 34). In addition to Act 31, as part of the Statutory Requirements identified under s.118.19, Stats., seven other components must be addressed. Together, these eight components project the spirit of PI 34 – to bring about a paradigmatic change in how teachers are prepared and licensed.

This research grant allows us share these data and findings with partner-stakeholders, assess partnership efforts to improve the quality of Wisconsin’s educators, and establish the groundwork needed for the larger study. In doing so, UW-Milwaukee’s School of Education and its Partner-Stakeholders generate the capacity to produce and disseminate data that targets gaps in the preparation and ongoing professional development of Wisconsin’s PK-12 educators so they are better able to meet the needs of the state’s diverse learners.