Teachers for a New Era: Research
Overview | Request for Proposals | Evidence of Learning | Findings & Reports
Request for Proposals, August 2004
The Washington Center for Teaching and Learning requests proposals in support of the Teachers for a New Era (TNE) initiative. Proposals will be reviewed by the TNE Leadership Council and be awarded for one year with potential for renewal. There are no deadlines for submission. Awards are expected to be in the range of $25,000 - $75,000 with an expectation that most grants will be in the lower range.
Funds are available to COE or CAS faculty to hire adjuncts to release them from courses or in the form of stipends. P-12 partners may use funds to hire additional staff. In addition, funds may be used to hire at least one, half-time research assistant for each project.
Goal: To support faculty, graduate students and P-12 partners in pursuing research to address the following TNE Design Principle: To create an evidentiary base for the impact of preservice education, a 2-year residency on teacher learning and practice and on the learning of P-12 pupils in the classrooms of UW graduates.
The Vision: We envision faculty members or groups of faculty from the Colleges of Education and Arts & Sciences as well as from P-12 partner schools developing and carrying out research to support the above TNE Design Principle. Further, we envision that the lead researchers for each grant, collectively, would become a part of the Evidence for Learning Team for the TNE project. As such, they would engage in a conversation across the life of the project about the study of teacher learning and teacher practices and their impact on P-12 student learning.
Products Needed by the End of the Initiative: As one of eleven TNE sites, we need to produce the following by the end of the 5-year grant period:
- Evidence of the impact that preservice experiences (including general education and arts and sciences major courses) have on what teachers know, are able to do, and care about,
- Evidence of the impact that the graduates of the UW have on the learning of P-12 pupils, and
- A system in place for:
(1) collecting data from graduates and their pupils,
(2) analyzing the data,
(3) reporting the findings back to the University, and
(4) using the data to shape the experiences that prospective teachers have at the University and in partner schools.
We must be sure that the full complement of projects that are funded help us generate these products. Consequently, we seek to support projects that are complementary to one another.
Examples of research projects that will be funded by TNE:
- A. Tracking students in undergraduate pathway (experiential minor in education) and/or during the preservice phase: Collect data on course, grades, field experiences, on West B/West E, portfolios, field supervisors’ notes, interviews, surveys, and observations.
- B. Master in Teacher Leadership
- C. First Year of Teaching: Collect data on number of courses taught, number of students, school profile, sample of assignments, WASL scores, induction supports and effectiveness. Consider projects that contribute to building and analyzing databases needed to track student performance in relation to teacher effectiveness.
- D. Teaching in Years 2-5: Continue to track same teachers from C.
- E. Programmatic renewal of TEP
Requirements/Guidelines for Projects:
- Projects must generate data, within the 5 years of the TNE project, on the impact that preservice teacher education (including general education and academic majors as well as teacher preparation) and a 2-year school residency has on the learning of:
-Prospective teachers and practicing teachers who are graduates of the UW
-Their P-12 pupils
- Projects may initially focus on the learning of preservice teachers but ultimately must produce evidence on the classroom practices of graduates and the impact of these practices on P-12 pupils, or alternatively, articulate with other projects designed to learn about teaching practices and their impact on student learning.
- Although individual faculty or groups of faculty may pursue distinct designs using distinct methods, each project will be expected to complement and be articulated with other TNE research projects. This will require meeting regularly – at least once/month, with other lead researchers on the Evidence of Learning Team (ELT). This may also require collaboration to build, when feasible, common or connected databases.
- Data produced using TNE funds will be considered TNE data, available to all researchers affiliated with the project.
- Researchers will be expected to make both written and oral reports on the results of their research to the TNE advisory board, UW faculty, the Washington Center for Teaching and Learning, and other audiences.
Questions that Proposals Must Address:
Section One
Goals: How does the proposed project address the goals of TNE and further the goal of learning more about the impact that preservice teacher education (including arts and sciences courses) have on teachers’ practices and P-12 pupil learning?
Theoretical Framework: How does the proposed research connect to earlier research and theoretical frameworks?
Research Design: What is the design of the proposed research, including instrumentation, sampling, data collection, data organization, and analysis?
Products: What products to you anticipate from the project?
Collaboration: How do you plan to involve each of the TNE entities (COE, CAS & P-12 representatives) and collaborate with the other ELT researchers?
Written Reports: What is your plan for generating and producing written reports of progress and findings after the first six months as well as after completion of one year of funding?
Personnel: Who will be working on the project and what roles and responsibilities will each person have?
Section Two
Budget & Budget Rational: Provide a breakdown and rationale for all personnel costs (include salary or stipend costs, benefits and time commitment) plus any other expenses you anticipate.
Section One should be no more than 7 double spaced pages.
Submission:
Please submit proposals electronically to:
Sally Luttrell-Montes
Associate Director, TNE
sallylm@u.washington.edu
206/517-9955
Proposal Review:
Download the rubric used for the proposal review process. The TNE Leadership Council will review proposals as received. The Council meets monthly and can provide an expected date regarding the status of approval within a short time period.