EDUCATION

Ann Cunningham
Universally Designed Project-Centered Learning Environments
Awarded $80,125 for the period 6/1/00 to 5/30/03
Source: United States Education Department (ED), subcontract with Elon College

A Summer Planning Institute will provide intensive, technology-infused training so that higher education faculty and cooperating teachers will be prepared to model problem-based instruction and support the use of projects with teacher candidates. It extends the activities of a Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) capacity-building grant awarded to Elon College and the Alamance Area Education Consortium in August 1999 to include Wake Forest University, Barton College, and associated school districts. The consortium partnership, WEB-NC, will share resources, develop expertise, and train future teachers in the design of technology-enhanced, inquiry-based instructional modules that meet universal design specifications. The project will benefit teaching and learning throughout the consortium area and, as a model project, the nation.

Leah McCoy

• A Study of Mathematics Achievement in Rural North Carolina High Schools
  Awarded $8,000 for the period 5/1/05 to 4/30/06
  Source: WFU Social, Behavioral, and Economic Science Research Fund

  This research seeks to determine what differences in opportunity to learn mathematics result in differences in achievement for students in rural North Carolina high schools. School variables will be obtained from online reports and email and phone surveys. Multiple regression analysis will examine the variance in achievement on No Child Left Behind measures in terms of these school variables. Qualitative data obtained from interviews in a sample of high and low performing rural high schools will further describe the differences between high and low performing schools.

• An Opportunity to Learn Advanced Mathematics in the Rural South: A Comparison of Curriculum and Instruction in High and Low Performing High Schools
  Awarded $4,000 for the period 6/1/04 to 10/1/04
  Source: Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning

This project will investigate variations in opportunity for students to learn advanced mathematics in rural high schools in the South. It will examine the mathematics curricula offered and the instructional methodologies employed in schools defined by standardized assignments as high- or low-performing. The results will be valuable in identifying the variables that schools can modify to improve student achievement.

• Teaching Math in the Delta: A Study of Mathematics Teachers in K-12 Public Schools in the Mississippi Delta
  Awarded $6,700 for the period 8/1/00 to 8/1/01
  Source: Spencer Foundation

  K-12 public school mathematics teachers in six diverse school districts in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi will be interviewed and observed to gain insights into how to improve mathematics education in some of the nation's most troubled schools. The Mississippi Delta presents unique opportunities to investigate how poverty and race affect K-12 education. The results will provide a better understanding of what happens in teachers' lives and in their classrooms that impacts the learning environment. Analysis of this information will promote ideas for more effective mathematics education in the Mississippi Delta and elsewhere.

• Triad Writing Project
  Awarded $38,000 for the period 7/1/03 to 6/30/04
  Source: National Writing Project

  The Triad site of the North Carolina Writing Project continues to train teacher consultants in writing theory and practice and to emphasize writing at all levels and disciplines. The program works with six other state sites to generate funding from the state Department of Public Instruction, sponsoring the state writing contest and Level II programs, sharing outside consultants, and offering other support. A summer institute trains teacher consultants to lead workshops at their schools. This year, it had a particularly good mixture of disciplines, with only 11 of the 24 participants specifying language arts as their primary subject.

• Model Clinical Teaching Network: Master Teacher Fellows
  Awarded $39,000 for the period 9/1/00 to 8/31/01
  Source: University of North Carolina-General Administration

Stipends to Master Teachers in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools provide a strong clinical component to their education. The program aims to attract academically able, ethnically diverse, and personally effective graduates to teaching; to use a medical-rounds model to expose students to many teaching philosophies and instructional styles; to increase collaboration between the university and K-12 teachers; to develop teachers who will become instructional leaders; and to provide a model fifth-year program that other institutions can replicate.

Mary Lynn Redmond
VISION 2010: A Plan to Assess Students’ Foreign Language Proficiency in the Johnston County Schools and the Cumberland County Schools
Source: WFU Social, Behavioral, and Economic Science Research Fund

The project will carry out the first phase of a formal assessment of students’ oral language proficiency. Two pilot-site school districts are participating in VISION 2010: A Plan for Model Foreign Language Programs in the North Carolina Public Schools. It seeks to provide sequential foreign language study from grade K through 12, with formal measures to ensure that students attain advanced communication ability by grade 12. The project is sponsored by the Alliance for Language Learning, a Wake Forest affiliate comprised of leaders in the business and K-12 and higher education communities.