TCNJ Receives $3.3 Million Grant from U.S. Department of Education

In partnership with the New Jersey Department of Education and the Ewing, Trenton, Pemberton, and Vineland Public Schools, The College of New Jersey received a grant in the amount of $3.3 million, funded by the United States Department of Education. Sharon Sherman, professor of elementary and early childhood education, and Cathy Liebars, professor of mathematics and statistics, are the College’s principal investigators.

The New Jersey Teacher Quality Enhancement Recruitment grant project will address the need to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers in high-poverty, low-achieving schools, particularly in the hard-to-staff areas of math and science.

"We're quite excited about receiving this award," Sherman said. "It was highly competitive; only 16 grants of this type were awarded throughout the country."

The College was chosen as a higher education partner in the grant because of its strong internal linkages between its Schools of Education, Science, and Engineering in the education of pre-service teachers. The College’s Center for Mathematics, Science, and Technology, headed by Sherman and Liebars, is a multidisciplinary team of educators, researchers, and practitioners, who will also play an integral role.

The grant will aid New Jersey’s efforts to improve the quality of teaching in high poverty, low-performing schools, utilizing research-based and proven strategies to enhance the recruitment and retention of teachers in urban settings. It will address crucial shortages in the areas of mathematics and science.

Some performance goals of the project include recruiting highly qualified candidates to teach in high-need schools; increasing the number of high school students who participate in a summer experience with yearlong follow-up to expose them to careers in teaching in high-need schools; redesigning alternate route programs; and increasing the number of participating teachers who are proficient in the use of computers and other technology to enhance instruction and student learning.

The project will also help state-level policymakers integrate powerful new recruitment and retention strategies for high-need districts into an overall reform effort to improve education for all New Jersey students.