Mission

History

Project SUCCEED is funded for five years by the Office of Post-Secondary Education, U.S. Department of Education, for a total amount in excess of $10 million. The Project SUCCEED coalition includes the University of Miami School of Education (Department of Teaching and Learning), the University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the Miami Museum of Science, and the United Teachers of Dade.

This partnership grant for Project SUCCEED is designed to enhance teacher quality.

Ongoing connections between the School of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences are built around the dual major in Education and Arts and Sciences required of all elementary education students. The School of Education’s conceptual framework emphasizes the integration of knowledge across disciplines and includes three integral themes – liberal arts, diversity, and technological applications. Connections between the University of Miami and Miami-Dade County Public Schools are exemplified by an influential advisory board, three ongoing professional development schools, co-membership in the Holmes Partnership and the urban Network to Improve Teacher Education, jointly-sponsored graduate programs and summer institutes, professional development training, and school-based research. The Museum of Science and the School of Education and College of Arts and Sciences have previously collaborated in the development of the Teacher Improvement Project in Physical Science, and an in-service teacher training program, as well as other endeavors focused on technology and science.

Outline

The project’s mission is to prepare proficient, keen teachers who are ready to meet the challenges of the 21st century in classrooms that are increasingly diverse in terms of language, culture, and special needs. Through a comprehensive approach to teacher education, prospective teachers will be able to see the “big picture” and understand where they fit on a professional development continuum that begins with recruitment, continues with pre-service teacher education and subject area learning, moves to novice teachers, and continues with expert, mentor teachers . All stages are connected.

Network of Programs

Project SUCCEED offers a thorough network of programs including:

  • STAR Scholarships
  • Collaborative curriculum reform
  • Learning Communities
  • Professional Development Schools
  • A SUPPORT network for new teachers
  • Summer Institutes
  • Enhanced technology instruction (including electronic portfolios)
  • Training in the Professional Assessment and Comprehensive Evaluation System (PACES)
  • Internships in the Miami Museum of Science’s summer camp
  • Professional Development Centers

Key Partnership Representatives:

Principal Investigator and Project Director Dean Sam Yarger
Dean of the School of Education

Judy Brown, Acting President, Program Development and Research
Miami Museum of Science.

For more information, contact Project SUCCEED at (305) 284-2213 or via e-mail.

Goals and Objectives

Our mission is to bring the resources of the University of Miami (UM)’s School of Education
and its College of Arts and Sciences into a unique collaboration that:

    1. Fosters an energetic exchange of best ideas and practices among the faculty in both units
    2. Meets the needs of Miami-Dade Public County Schools

In our collective vision, we believe that the greatest need for 21st century South Florida teachers is to teach with zeal, proficiency, and understanding in classrooms that are more demanding and more diverse in terms of language, culture, and special needs. We are committed to holding our graduates to high standards for what they should know and be able to do, providing them with the resources to achieve these standards while they are our students and after they enter the teaching profession.

The project provides the opportunity to strengthen collaboration between the various partners enabling a substantial increase in interactions among teachers, administrators, and higher education faculty. Ultimately, the over-arching goal of the project is to improve K-12 student achievement.

Our over-arching goal is to improve student achievement through:

    1. A comprehensive approach to enhancing teacher quality
    2. Increasing the percentage of our graduates who seek and retain employment in urban high-need schools

Ultimately we hope to serve as a model for other institutions throughout the nation. We have already demonstrated in a variety of ways our strong commitment to collaborating with one another. Building upon a solid foundation, we have strengthened the links between the School of Education, College of Arts and Sciences, and K-12 faculties and substantially increase interactions between teachers, administrators, and higher education faculty.

We have established eight objectives that we anticipate will lead to the accomplishment of our goals and can be directly linked to specific pre-existing and new project components.

Objectives of Project SUCCEED
Linked to Existing and New Program Components
Objectives
Existing Components
New Components
1. Increase the number of students whose career goal is to teach in high-need schools
  • Joint recruitment efforts between CAS and SOE
  • STAR Scholarships – 8 per year
2. Improve prospective teachers’ subject area knowledge and pedagogical knowledge
  • Dual major Conceptual framework
  • Learning community
  • New learning communities
  • Curriculum reform
  • Summer Institutes
3. Ensure that prospective teachers are well prepared for the realities of the classroom
  • Many field experiences
  • 3 PDSs
  • Improved field experiences
  • Addition of 5 Professional Development Schools (PDSs)
  • Performance Assessment and Comprehensive Evaluation System (PACES)
4. Prepare prospective teachers to work effectively with culturally and linguistically diverse students and families.
  • Focus on diversity in programs
  • Field experiences in diverse schools
  • TESOL endorsement
  • Enhanced field experiences in PDSs
  • Increased emphases on socio-linguistics, working with families, TESOL
5. Prepare prospective teachers to use technology as a tool for integrative teaching and learning
  • Technology focus in programs
  • Field experiences using technology
  • Electronic portfolios
  • Miami Museum of Science internship and training
  • Project SUCCEED Website
6. Provide support for education graduates during their first three years of teaching
  • Informal support network
  • SUPPORT Network (with Peer Partners, university faculty, graduate assistants)
7. Increase opportunities for professional development in research-based practices for K-12 teachers
  • Professional development activities in PDSs and other schools
  • Summer institutes
  • Enhanced professional development activities
8. Enhance K-12 teachers’ professional growth
  • Involvement in PDSs
  • Adjunct university faculty
  • Clinical supervisors
  • Involvement in Holmes Partnership/ UNITE
  • New PDSs and Centers
  • PACES / electronic portfolios
  • Serve as Peer Partners
  • Increase involvement in state/national organizations

Objectives of SUCCEED
Overall project objectives
  • Increase the number of prospective teachers whose career goal is to teach in high-needs schools.
  • Improve prospective teachers’ subject area knowledge and pedagogical knowledge.
  • Ensure that prospective teachers are well prepared for the realities of the classroom.
  • Prepare prospective teachers to work effectively with culturally and linguistically diverse students and families.
  • Prepare prospective teachers to use technology as a tool for integrative teaching and learning.
  • Provide support for education graduates during their first three years of teaching.
  • Increase opportunities for professional development in research-based practices for K-12 teachers.
  • Enhance K-12 teachers’ professional growth.

Objectives specific to schools
Objective Who How

FIELD EXPERIENCE

  • Place all students at PDS sites.
  • Provide prospective teachers with supervised field experiences and internships.
  • Professors with support of school
  • Graduate Assistants.
  • Flamingo and Coral Gables using new supervision model.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT

  • Exploration of theory through readings and discussions
  • Demonstrations in classrooms
  • Practice under simulated conditions
  • Coaching and consulting to solve problems and answer questions
  • Professor
  • School
  • Graduate Assistants
  

UNIVERSITY CLASSES – ON-SITE

Through onsite courses, create schools that become living laboratories that involve prospective and K-12 teachers, and students.
  • Professors
  

COLLABORATIVE PROGRAMS

Programs that involve PDS and other M-DCPS schools
  • Professors from the CAS and SOE
  • Young Scholars Project for 7th graders and teachers
  • Project INSTAR
  • UM/Flamingo Pen Pal Project
  • Mathematics Science Resource Teacher (MSRT) Project

PDC

Create Professional Development Centers at select PDS sites to:

  • Provide support for K-12 teachers through PEER PARTNERS
  • Assist with piloting of M-DCPS PROFESSIONAL ASSESSMENT AND COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION SYSTEMS (PACES)
  • As part of PACES prospective teachers to develop electronic portfolios.
  • Mentor new teachers through a SUPPORT network
  • UM, teachers and administrator
  • MMOS
  • Dr. Lorton
  • Dr. Provenzo
  • Henry Pollock
  • M-DCPS
  • master teachers
  • administrators
  • SOE and CAS faculty and GA’s.
  • UM teach prospective teachers about PACES in university classes, experience through associate teaching.
  • Training sessions
Objectives for In-service teachers – Professional Development
  • SUMMER INSTITUTES
  • Zelda Glazer Writing Institute
  • Teacher Enhancement Project
    

ENGLISH LITERATURE

Segments from Shakespeare

  • Dr. Provenzo
  • Bruce Miller
  • Dr. Eugene Clasby
  • Summer Institute

READING

Workshops:

  • multi-level, research based reading practices for diverse classrooms
  • workshops for helping struggling readers
  • Summer Reading Institute
  • Dr. Schumm
  • Dr. Forgan
  • Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) workshop – improving scores on the FCAT
  • Teaching strategies for struggling readers –Ponce (UM grad students in R/LD participate on on-site Diagnosis and Remediation of Reading Disabilities course – and tutor)

SCIENCE

Science Teams to:

  • provide middle school science teachers and students with on-site science specialists for integrative curricular development
  • facilitate research experiences in the classroom
  • give UM undergrad education majors novel teacher-training experiences
  • Faculty and UM students
  • UM faculty, lead teachers
 Create four Science Teams – 1 grad and 1 undergrad . Each team participate 2 hours per day for two weeks with each of the 12 selected middle school science teachers in their classrooms over the year.

MATHEMATICS

Summer Institute: principles of mathematical reasoning in events, situations and circumstance
  • Dr. Cuevas
  • Dr. Zame
  • Dr. Kelley
  

AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES

Training institute: aim of assisting teachers to be effective in the infusion of African American studies across the curriculum.
  • SOE
  • Dr. Marvin Dawkins
  • Dr. Robert Moore
  • Frank Glover
  

FLORIDA HISTORY

Workshops: to assist in teaching of Florida history at fourth grade
  • Dr. Hanneman
  • Dr. Gregory Bush
  • Dr. Donald Spivey
  

Technology through the Curriculum
  • Florida Technology Teacher Enhancement Center (TTEC) At the Miami Museum of Science
  • Training sessions
  • Paper”LESS” Classroom
  • Distance Learning
  • PDS K-12 teachers, PDS administrators, UM faculty members with MMOS
  • Flamingo Elementary
  • Coral Gables Senior High, Dr. J Corces with Dr. G Cuevas and CAS
  • Four day training, using Cyber Trails module to hone skills in developing a web site and electronic portfolio
  • These trained groups will become “Curriculum Integration Support Teams”

Working with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Families
  • Study: School-home communication procedures with the result of being able to offer more culturally relevant and effective procedures
  • Workshops: cultural diversity and families
  • Dr. Harry
  

English for Speakers of Other Languages and Dialects
Sociolinguistic component will be designed to familiarize prospective and training teachers on African-American Vernacular English (AAVE)
  • Dr. Clachar
  

Graduate Programs in Education

ADVANCED PROFESSIONAL STUDIES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING PROGRAM – for certification by National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

  • R/LD grad program
  • EH/LD Master’s Program for Haitian teachers
  • Bilingual Beginnings for Teachers and Students Project
  • Biliteracy for Beginning Teachers Project
  • English secondary program – “in-field”

DOCTORAL PROGRAM

  • Engaging students in PDS
  • Program itself with emphasis on teacher education
  • Funding for GA positions
  • UM (CAS, SOE)
  • M-DCPS
  • NBPTS
  • UTD
  • Homes Partnership
  • NCATE and NBPTS certified teachers.
  

School-Based Research
  • Increase ability of prospective and K-12 teachers to be sophisticated consumers of research.
  • Prospective and practicing teachers opportunity to participate in collaborative inquiry in PDS
  • Workshop in Educational Research
    

Special Projects
  • Goal: enhancing prospective teacher education.
  • Faculty in CAS or SOE can apply for mini-grants to do projects.
    

STAR Scholarship Program
Provide full tuition to 15 undergrad students who will be non-traditional students, from other professions, or from urban high-needs schools    

New Learning Communities
  • Undergraduate education students will attend integrated social science course linked in a learning community with TAL 202, Language and Culture in the Classroom during sophomore year.
  • Secondary education students take part in integrated social studies course linked with a course on meeting the education needs of diverse secondary learners.
  • Team teaching across SOE department.
  

Collaborative Curriculum Reform
  • Curricular innovations:
  • New Major in Psychology
  • New course in Mathematical Reasoning
  • Use of drama to increase teaching efficiency
  • Dr. Zame
  • Dr. Kelley
  • Dr. Cuevas
  • Bruce Miller
  • Kent Lantaff
  • Dr. Lorton
  • Sharon Andreaci
  

back to top