National Board Resource Center
funded by the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards from $100,000 from 9/15/99 to 8/30/05

Principal Investigator: Dr. Arturo Pacheco
Project Director: Deborah Svedman

Originally funded in 1999 by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the National Board Resource Center was one of five centers funded nationally for three years to assist teachers in the region, especially teachers of color, to prepare for the National Board Certification process. NB certification is one of the highest levels of recognition that an experienced classroom teacher can attain, and although thousands of teachers have now been certified nationwide, very few teachers of color have gone through the rigorous one-year assessment certification process and been certified. To date, only two teachers in the El Paso region have been NB certified; one of them, Deborah Svedman, is the current coordinator of the Resource Center. Through a series of information sessions, visits with school district personnel, and on-going candidate support workshops, a new cadre of local teachers is being prepared for the process for certification.

Although this grant has come to an end, additional support for the next five years of effort will come from the MSP grant. In years 2-5 of the MSP grant, participation support fees, approximately $2,500 per teacher, will be provided for 15 teachers per year.

For more information, link to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standard’s website at www.nbpts.org

Noyce Scholars
funded by the National Science Foundation for $497,850 from 9/01/02 to 8/31/05

Principal Investigator: Dr. Arturo Pacheco
Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Sally Blake

Building on the experience of the original Partnership for Excellence in Teacher Education (PETE) grant, the Noyce Scholars grant was funded by NSF in September of 2002 for three years. The grant was designed to support undergraduates and graduate students specializing in mathematics and science to engage in action research projects associated with teaching in local public schools. The project created research teams that engaged undergraduates, graduate students, public school math and science teachers, and university faculty who acted as mentors on the projects. The intent of the project was to increase the quality and quantity of teachers well prepared in mathematics and science, to develop communities of practice around teaching and research in teaching, and to create a mentoring program designed to support induction, retention, and increased research capacity among teachers of mathematics and science.

In 2005 there were 19 Noyce Scholars (11 undergraduates and 8 graduates) supported by the grant, along with 12 school mentors and 12 university mentors. The first set of research projects was presented at the UTEP Student Research Expo in May 2003.
For more information, refer to the PETE website.

PETE Follow-Up Impact Study
funded by the National Science Foundation for $648,073 from 3/01/02 to 2/28/05

Principal Investigator: Dr. Arturo Pacheco
Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Sally Blake

Funded in 2002, this 3-year grant supported a follow up study of an earlier NSF funded project, the Partnership for Excellence in Teacher Education (PETE). That grant, funded for 5 years and $5 million, ended in 2002, and the follow up grant was a research and evaluation study of the impact of the original grant. The original PETE grant established a partnership for the reform of mathematics and science teacher preparation between UTEP’s College of Education, the College of Science, and El Paso Community College, and it had three additional components: improvement and redesign of the teacher preparation curriculum in math and science, recruiting and retaining more teachers in math and science, and enhancing the work of the community college and university teacher preparation faculty in mathematics, science, and education. The follow-up study was a longitudinal research and evaluation study of the impact of the earlier study, with a focus on the continuing professional development and retention of recently graduated teachers in mathematics and science.

In 2005 the PETE Follow-Up Impact Study supported 12 Master’s level graduate students—all practicing teachers, who received support from seven faculty members from the College of Education, the College of Science, and the College of Engineering.

For more information, refer to the PETE website.

Technology Challenge 98
funded by the US Department of Education for $10 million dollars from 10/01/98 to 9/30/04 

Principal Investigator: Dr. Arturo Pacheco
Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Susana Navarro

This 5-year grant built on the experience of a prior Department of Education grant, Challenge 95. Challenge 98: El Paso Partnership for Technology Integration, brought together twelve school districts (3 urban and 9 rural), Region 19 Education Service Center and the University of Texas at El Paso to integrate technology with challenging instructional content in order to accelerate student achievement.

The project had three unique characteristics:

1. it was delivered by a partnership made up of urban and rural LEAs, a Regional Education Service Center and a University;
2. it targeted all constituencies within each participating school (teachers, administrators, technology coordinators, parent educators, teacher preparation faculty and future teachers) in a systemic reform effort; and
3. it provided a structured approach to learn and integrate technology with high quality instructional content in literacy, mathematics and science.

In the course of the 5-year grant, Challenge 98 provided intensive professional development for more than 500 Technology Teacher Leaders and tuition support for 200 Master Teachers who have earned Master’s degrees in instructional technology. It also provided training for 100 school administrators and 200 parent educators in 100 participating schools. In its final year, 2003-04, the grant supported research on the overall impact of the systemic reform effort.

In addition to the tuition support for 200 teachers who received master’s degrees, the grant also supported five doctoral students with employment while they were pursuing their doctoral degrees.

For more information, see web page at challenge.utep.edu