Gates Foundation gives $6.8M for teacher prep center

TeachingWorks, a national organization based at the U-M School of Education dedicated to improving professional preparation for teaching, received a $6.8 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish a Teacher Preparation Transformation Center.

The Teacher Preparation Transformation Center Initiative, developed by the Gates Foundation, is designed to create a diverse national network of teacher education providers that will build—both independently and collectively—effective pathways for the preparation of beginning teachers.

The other centers in the initiative are University-School Partnerships for the Renewal of Educator Preparation National Center, based at Texas Tech University; Teacher2, led by the Relay Graduate School of Education in New York City; the National Center for Teacher Residencies Transformation Center in Chicago; and Elevate Preparation, Impact Children, led by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Through this initiative, TeachingWorks will offer direct professional support—including workshops, modeling and coaching — to staff members in the national centers and, as needed, to teacher educators in each center’s provider network. This work will focus on strengthening teacher preparation by engaging in continuous improvement, supporting the effectiveness of teacher educators and coordinating professional preparation with school systems and the communities they serve.

TeachingWorks also will lead the development and implementation of formative and exit assessments of novice teachers’ capabilities and will collaborate closely with the other centers in disseminating their own learning, helping to develop and package products that come from the centers’ work and creating a digital resource center that will catalog, house and make these products accessible to others.