UWM Receives $500,000 Education Grant

MILWAUKEE - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has received a $500,000 grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Education (FIE). The funding will help UWM continue its leadership role in The Great Cities Universities (GCU) strategic plan to improve urban children's academic achievement and close minority achievement gaps in urban schools.

GCU is a coalition of 17 urban public research universities, which focuses on developing ways to help surrounding urban schools solve the urgent education challenges in their communities.

UWM Chancellor Nancy Zimpher and Professor Kenneth Howey (School of Education, Department of Curriculum and Instruction) are the directors for this grant as they were for a previous U.S. Department of Education planning grant for the project

In early 2000, the GCU established an Urban Educator Corps Partnership Initiative (UEC Initiative), designed to improve the preparation of teachers and school leaders for urban schools and expand the pipeline of highly qualified personnel for these schools.

A specific emphasis for the Urban Educator Corps in this grant will be on recruiting, preparing and training science teachers, Zimpher said.

This grant also will help the UEC strengthen local urban partnerships, and leadership teams comprised of key leaders in the GCU universities; their partnering urban schools districts, and the community at large, according to Zimpher. At each of the 17 GCU sites, these leadership teams are working to improve and expand preparation and support for teachers and leaders in urban schools, especially high poverty urban schools.

Because the GCU is managed by the universities' chancellors and presidents and involves all sectors of the universities and surrounding communities, the coalition is uniquely positioned to create long-term systemic change, Howey said.

Since university presidents assume a central role in the GCU, the grant also will support planning for a national summit on presidential leadership in urban teacher preparation and related school renewal. This summit will draw from case studies of university presidents' efforts to use university resources to assist urban school districts and community leaders in helping students achieve their potential. In Milwaukee, UWM has been actively involved with the Milwaukee Partnership Academy, a coalition of community, school and universities working together to help MPS students achieve at or above grade level.

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