Wednesday, July 25, 2001

WILMINGTON, N.C. – UNCW’s Watson School of Education received a three-year matching grant totaling more than $2 million to train UNCW students, faculty and cooperating teachers to assess student achievement using the latest handheld technology.

The school is receiving $965,815 from the U.S. Department of Education, with the remaining funds being matched by the university and other partners in the project. UNCW is one of only two universities in the state to be awarded this grant and one of 75 nationwide during this grant cycle. The funding is retroactive to July 1.

The Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) grant supports innovative teacher preparation program improvements.

UNCW’s Technology for Reflection and Assessment Coalition is a significant initiative that will infuse technology throughout the Watson School of Education teacher preparation program, leading ultimately to significant restructuring in programs and courses.

“We want to make a difference in the public school classrooms by producing teachers skilled in assessment through technology at the Watson School of Education,” said Dean Cathy Barlow. This grant will build on the relationship the university has developed with area public schools through its Professional Development System (PDS). It involves elementary, middle and high school teachers in New Hanover, Duplin and Brunswick counties.

“If you’re going to prepare teachers you’ve got to be in the schools,” she said. “With PDS, one of the perks is being able to be involved in these kinds of activities.”

“We’re able to tackle important issues and get schools involved because of the trust in the partnership and the product,” said Karen Wetherill, assistant dean in the Watson School of Education.

The one-inch thick grant application outlines a program that is “very cutting edge,” Barlow explained. “What they were looking for was systemic change, an impact, and this surely has that.”

“Our ultimate goal is that UNCW becomes a known site for innovative technologies that are tied to assessment. We want to give them assessment techniques that aren’t laborious, that will help them and save time for instruction,” Wetherill added.

Over the next three years, technology training will be provided to 1,154 pre-service teachers – students at the Watson School of Education who are studying to become public school teachers – and 136 faculty which includes full-time educators at UNCW as well as 20 area public school teachers who work with pre-service teachers and who are considered “extended faculty” at UNCW.

"The goal is to train the whole team,” Dr. Barlow said. They will learn to use the latest technologies, including handheld computers, to develop effective classroom assessment practices. The training will begin this fall with elementary education faculty and focus on K-2 assessment in math and communication as well as secondary education PDS teachers and UNCW interns. The effort will expand into the arts and sciences in the spring.

“Over a three-year period we will have everyone trained,” said Dr. Barlow.

The federal grant money cannot be used to purchase equipment, rather it will be used to buy “people and time,” Barlow noted. For example, the university will use a portion to hire a technology coordinator, a Webmaster and video technician to support the project. Other funds will be used for training and travel.

“One of the goals is to pull together a network of people working on technology,” Wetherill explained.

UNCW’s partners in the coalition are Illuminations-Marco Polo Internet Project/MCI WorldCom Foundation; Duplin, Brunswick and New Hanover county schools; Southeastern Vision for Education (SERVE); North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Evaluation and Mathematics/Science divisions; and the North Carolina Board of Education.

Barlow and Wetherill are the project directors and served as chairs of the writing team, which included UNCW faculty Carol Midgett, Mahnaz Moallam, David Gill, Deborah Sherrill and Tracy Hargrove.###