MUNCIE, Ind. – Ball State University is participating in a national project to help better educate future teachers.

Ball State is one of three Indiana universities to join the Standards-based Teacher Education Project (STEP), co-sponsored by the Council for Basic Education and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

The project is designed to strengthen the content knowledge and instructional skills of new teachers. Over a three-year period, teams of university and K-12 faculty will examine and redefine elements of their university-based teacher preparation program. The grant totals $34,000.

"STEP stresses helping teaching majors to better know classroom content and incorporate into daily lessons the education standards mandated by the state for grades K-12," said Tom Schroeder, Teachers College associate dean. "By having new teachers paying attention to those standards, we improve the education of K-12 students."

The project also promotes this goal by allowing teams of university and K-12 faculty to examine and redefine elements of the university-based teacher preparation program.

The STEP grant is the second award Ball State has received to assist in reforming teacher education programs. The university recently received a $4.28 million, 5-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education to help better prepare new teachers to meet the demands of the modern classroom.

"We were already working on the reform project under the Indiana Professional Standards Board to move to a performance-based review of our teacher candidates," Schroeder said. "This is supplemental funding to assist in our efforts. It will allow us to pay to bring K-12 teachers to campus and promote collaboration among all those involved in teacher education."

The Council for Basic Education is a national non-profit organization advocating high academic standards for all children in American public schools. The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education is a national, voluntary association of colleges and universities with undergraduate programs to prepare professional educators. The 724 AACTE member colleges and universities graduate about 90 percent of U.S. teachers and educators each year.

By Marc Ransford, Communications Manager

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Schroeder at tschroed@bsu.edu or (765) 285-5251.)