The Teaching and Learning Department has received two grants through the Nebraska Department of Education and the Chief Council of State School Officers (CCSSO) to be implemented during the 2023-2024 school year. We have spent time this summer preparing to roll out professional learning opportunities for our school districts with the use of these grant funds.
The first grant, Mid-Nebraska Educator Pipeline, is in partnership with the University of Nebraska at Kearney. The role of the Teaching and Learning Department is to provide support to ESU 10 teachers that have committed to being a part of the pipeline. Participants in the pipeline are in their first 1-5 years of teaching and have enrolled in a masters program at UNK. Members of our T&L Department organized a professional learning opportunity for these teachers at ESU 10 this summer. We used grant dollars to fund a Restorative Practice training with national expert Dominique Smith on June 16. The majority of teachers in the project attended. ESU 10 staff will be providing on-site and virtual coaching in conjunction with the research course teachers are taking through UNK during the 2023-2024 school year. T&L staff will also be facilitating Zoom sessions on various educational topics to provide additional learning and support for teachers in the pipeline.
The second grant we received is a mini grant through the Nebraska Department of Education and the Chief Council of State School Officers (CCSSO). The Nebraska IMPD ESU Grant Project provided five ESUs across the state with $15,000 each to support school districts in the implementation of high quality instructional materials. ESU 10 currently has 14 school districts that are implementing Amplify CKLA reading materials in their elementary schools. With the grant funds, we will be contracting with the company Amplify to facilitate six virtual training sessions for teachers. These training sessions offer additional support for teachers at no cost to their district. The grant will also provide enough funding to pay for substitute teachers so classroom teachers can attend. We will be finding out more about this grant on August 28 during a statewide kickoff meeting at ESU 10.
Both of these grants provide funding to support teachers in the hopes of recruiting and retaining educators. We look forward to our continued partnerships with UNK and NDE to support educators in an effort to improve learning for all students.