Pacific Receives Nearly $1 Million Education Grant to Address Achievement Gap
University of the Pacific, in partnership with the Marysville Joint Unified School District, has won funding for a professional development project to help improve elementary school teaching in science and language arts. The partnership has been awarded a four-year Improving Teacher Quality (ITQ) grant of $999,820 by the California Postsecondary Education Commission.
The goal of CPEC's 2009 Achievement Gap Initiative is to use professional development programs at middle schools that aim to close racial and ethnic achievement gaps. The programs will also address other achievement gap factors such as poverty, gender and disability, and the specific needs of English language learners.
University faculty from education and subject matter departments will work with their partner school district to improve the effectiveness and content knowledge of middle school teachers. The grants require a rigorous evaluation to show how these projects affect student achievement. The other 2009 grantees are University of Southern California, UC Los Angeles, UC Riverside, CSU Northridge and CSU Sacramento.
Over the past two decades, CPEC has awarded 200 ITQ grants totaling more than $110 million. The grants are funded through the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 to provide highquality professional development to K-12 educators under the collaborative guidance of a regional university.