ESU Awarded Two Grants from Pennsylvania Department of Education

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Posted by: Elizabeth Richardson on February 13, 2023, No Comments

East Stroudsburg University’s College of Education has received two grants from the Pennsylvania Department of Education totaling nearly $200,000.

The first grant in the amount of $99,381.44 is the The Innovative Teacher Prep2Practice grant. Beth Rajan Sockman, Ph.D., professor of professional and secondary education, is the principal investigator.

With this grant, ESU will support teacher pipelines in collaboration with Pocono Mountain, Stroudsburg Area, Easton Area and Bethlehem Area School Districts, along with Northampton Community College, and embed the recently released Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Educational Competencies (CR-SE) within the fabric of its processes. Dr. Rajan Sockman; Dr. Donna-Marie Cole-Malott, assistant professor of secondary education; Dr. Ahmed Yousof, assistant professor of art + media + design; Dr. Laura Kieselbach, assistant professor of English; and Dr. Christopher Dubbs, assistant professor of mathematics; will steer three main initiatives: research with underrepresented groups to better understand how ESU can attract more teachers of color in education; enhancement of the dual enrollment programs to be seamless for students who are seeking to become educators; and creation of exemplar lessons that use the CR-SE and best practice in instructional design.

ESU’s secondary education program, collaborating with the Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium and educational partners, will increase understanding of community member needs to better support innovative teacher development to prepare teachers to design equitable learning.

The second grant, The Innovative Principal Prep2Practice grant, was designed to build innovative partnerships between Educator Preparation Programs (EPPs) and Local Education Agencies (LEAs) to improve the “prep to practice” linkage in the preparation of school leaders. ESU is partnering with Stroudsburg Area School District to explore the use of simulations to provide enhanced clinical experiences for leadership preparation, improve induction of new education leaders, and to provide anytime, anywhere support for novice and in-service principals. The principal investigator for the $99,676 for the Innovative Principal Prep2Practice grant is M. Elizabeth Azukas, Ed.D., assistant professor of professional and secondary education.

To learn more about ESU’s College of Education contact Dr. Brooke Langan, dean of the College of Education at (570) 422-3377 or email blangan1@esu.edu.