Saint Xavier University’s School of Education has recently received a $45,000 grant from the Illinois Board of Higher Education. This grant will be used to redesign the school’s Early Childhood Education curriculum while improving program communication between Saint Xavier and two year colleges. Professor Anne George, an associate professor in the School of Education and the Early Childhood Education Program Chair, will be overseeing this project. The submission deadline for the grant was extremely tight with the Illinois Board of Higher Education announcing the grant in support of unique and innovative childhood education program proposals on November 13, 2013 with a submission deadline of December 18, 2013.
Professor George, with the support of Larry Sondler the Director of Teacher Education, wrote the proposal for the grant.
There were requirements that had to be met when applying for the grant, and in meeting those requirements Saint Xavier’s Early Childhood Education program worked with both Moraine Valley Community College and Richard J. Daley College during the grant period. One of the ways that this proposal was unique was due to the programs decision to cooperate with other universities and community colleges throughout the Chicago area that were also applying for the grant. The goal of doing this was to work jointly throughout institutions to fulfill the grant’s goals.
So, while each of the participating universities in this joint venture applied separately, it was proposed to the Illinois Board of Higher Education that they would work together to achieve the goals during the grant period. Thus the Chicago Area Consortium for the Redesign of Early Childhood Education (CACRECE) was created. Sondler was a key participant in enabling the creation of the consortium, which consists of four universities and seven community colleges. Mr. Sondler stated, “We’re very excited about this aooprunity we designed a model that we expect will result in a stronger articulation agreement than just between one university and one community college.”
When asked what the main goal is in redesigning the Early Childhood Education program here at Saint Xavier Professor George responded, “The main goal of the redesign is to continue to maintain the high quality of the Early Childhood Education program at SXU by bringing our curriculum into alignment with the latest educator licensure standards.”
Some other goals that she listed included the following: the enhancing of the effectiveness of the preparation of early childhood educators, the creation of new partnerships of the enhancing of already existing ones between Saint Xavier and two year colleges in an attempt to create an early childhood workforce in Illinois that is highly trained, etc. With the redesign, Saint Xavier’s Early Childhood Education program is going to look different.
Professor George explained that, “We may redesign existing courses or create new ones to address the new standards.” Many of the grant activities have already begun, but it is expected that the redesign process should be complete by December 2014.
This revised program will mirror the latest standards for educator licensure, and will prepare Saint Xavier students in the program to work more efficiently with young children who are English learners.
According to Professor George the redesigned program will, “Continue to allow SXU’s teacher candidates access to a high-quality early childhood education curriculum that prepares them for the workforce and ensures that they are better prepared to serve and meet the needs of all their students.” Not only will Saint Xavier be redesigning their program to these new standards, but both Moraine Valley Community College and Richard J. Daley College will also be redesigning their two-year programs.
This will allow for Saint Xavier to strengthen its articulation agreement with Moraine Valley and also establish a similar agreement with Richard J. Daley College.
These agreements will allow students who complete the two-year programs at either institution to have the proper requirements to enter Saint Xavier’s program to earn a bachelor’s degree as well as their Professional Educator License. “I am personally elated that we have received this support to move the work of program redesign and articulation forward. Although our collaboration is still in its initial stages, I greatly enjoy working with our various partner institutions. We are having a lot of rich conversations and discussions about what good programs look like and what high quality teachers who enter the field of early childhood education should know and be able to do. It has been a lot of hard work so far, but also extremely rewarding!” George stated when asked her personal feelings concerning the redesign.
With this grant comes new changes here at Saint Xavier that should prove to be rewarding for the future educators of Illinois.
Catlyn Hicks
Senior News Editor
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