Virginia Union University’s Evelyn Reid Syphax School of Education, under the leadership of Dean Kimberly Gaiters-White, has been awarded a $10,000 research grant by Albany State University’s Center for Educational Opportunity (CEO). The grant will assist in funding a new research study, “Beyond the Test: Making Teaching an Attainable Career for Teachers of Color”, to assess obstacles that prevent culturally and linguistically diverse candidates from becoming teachers.
Recognizing the critical shortage of teachers of color, this study aims to find ways to overcome challenges and prepare more teachers to enter the workforce. The research will focus on understanding the barrier of passing requisite licensure exams and identify data-driven strategies that will improve the pass rates of test-takers of color. Results will be utilized to refine the VUU Licensure Exam Preparation Institute. The refined Institute model will be embedded into the undergraduate teacher preparation program, as well as its post-baccalaureate teacher licensure program. More importantly, the information will be widely disseminated to other teacher preparation programs nationwide via conference presentations and publications.
The Center for Educational Opportunity is funded by the Thurgood Marshall Foundation and was established on April 13, 2018, to support outcomes-based, impact research with a focus on four pillars:
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