Outreach Partnerships

• TEACH 180 Days in Springfield - Secondary Teacher Education Pathway
  The 180 Days in Springfield pathway provides an immersion Master's degree and teacher licensure program in conjunction with urban schools in Springfield: Central High School, Chestnut Accelerated Middle School, John J. Duggan Middle School and The Renaissance School. Many of our graduates have taught or are now teaching in the Springfield
  
  Public Schools.
  More than 160 new teachers prepared since 1996
  2008-2009 Enrollment - 16 Master’s students
  
  
• TEACH 180 Days in Springfield - Secondary Teacher Education Pathway Legacy Projects
  Master’s students in the 180 Days pathway create service-learning projects as part of their coursework. Projects provide opportunities for middle and high school students to participate in programs ranging from school tutoring to sports clubs, school and community beautification projects and arts-related activities.
  
  
• Project Lead
  In 2002, the Springfield School System received a renewable grant of $1 million from the Wallace Reader’s Digest Foundation to research and develop a leadership-training program in pursuit of high student achievement. The School of Education was selected to partner with Project Lead to help the project achieve its goals of improving educational leadership and increasing the numbers of minority administrators within the district. The School of Education consults regularly with Springfield Project Lead while offering 21 graduate course credits on-site. This grant was recently renewed, with Springfield, Boston Public Schools, Massachusetts Department of Education and the School of Education. The School is now working with Boston on their district-based principal certification program.
  
  Wallace Reader’s Digest Foundation grant: $1 million
  School administrator licenses – more than 80
  2008-2009 Enrollment - 26
  
  
• The Tutoring Enrichment Assistance Models for Schools (TEAMS) Project
  The more than 20-year-old Tutoring Enrichment Assistance Models for Schools (TEAMS) Project places undergraduate and graduate students from School of Education courses in tutoring situations in Springfield schools. The project aims to improve school performance among K-12 students and increase knowledge of teaching as a career among college tutors.
  
  Project participants have provided over 150,000 hours of tutoring to K-12 students since TEAMS began in 1984 in Springfield, Holyoke, Greenfield, Chicopee, and Amherst.
  
  
• ACCELA Alliance
  The Access through Critical Content and English Language Acquisition (ACCELA) Alliance in Springfield and Holyoke is funded by a $3 million grant from U.S. and Massachusetts State Department of Education grants over six years (Title VII, Title III, & Title II). ACCELA offers a Master’s Degree in Education with Licensure in ELL (English Language Learners) and Reading for school educators and offers courses for a Bachelor’s of General Studies degree for bilingual paraprofessionals. In addition, the ACCELA Fellowship Program provides graduate scholarships for bilingual pre-service and in-service teachers and the ACCELA Professional Development initiative creates a forum for administrators to learn from local teacher research activities.
  
  U.S. and Massachusetts Department of Education grants: $3 million
  
  
• Off-Campus Program in Science Education (Science Education On-Line and Springfield)
  The School of Education, in collaboration with the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, the School of Public Health and Health Services, and the University of Massachusetts Lowell, offers a graduate degree program in science education for elementary and middle school teachers. Courses, which are offered online and onsite at the High School of Science and Technology in Springfield, are designed to prepare elementary and middle school science teachers in science content and pedagogy. Students can complete all of their courses online, if so desired, thus the program is open to students nationally and internationally. The program has been approved by the Massachusetts Department of Education for Professional Licensure in five areas.
  
  National Science Foundation grant: $1.2 million
  2008-2009 Enrollment - 23 Master’s/CAGS students
  
  
• 4MALITY
  Faculty and graduate students, in conjunction with the Center for Educational Software Development, developed an intelligent tutoring system designed to improve 4th grade mathematics MCAS test scores in Springfield, Greenfield, Northampton and Amherst schools.
  
  
• W.E.B. Du Bois Youth Curators Project
  Secondary Teacher Education graduate students worked with the W.E.B. Dubois Library to develop online access to Du Bois writings for high school students in Springfield, Boston and Great Barrington.
  
  
• PV STEMNET
  With the School of Education as a lead partner, the Pioneer Valley Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics PreK-16 Pipeline Network (PV STEMNET) collaborates with the Springfield School District, the Springfield Archdiocese Schools, and Springfield area colleges including Springfield College, Western New England College, and Springfield Technical Community College. PV STEMNET has sponsored an academic-year enrichment activity for middle school students (hosted at WNEC); a summer camp for middle school students (hosted at Springfield College); two content courses in mathematics for teachers of grades 4-8; and workshops on the use of digital photography for teachers.
  
  
• Educational Trust Partnership
  The School Counselor Education concentration has a five-year-old Educational Trust Partnership with the Springfield Public Schools focusing on improving counseling in schools to eliminate gaps in achievement and college placement.
  
  
• Massachusetts School Counseling Model Implementation Project
  Springfield is included in the Massachusetts Department of Education-sponsored Massachusetts School Counseling Model implementation project. Faculty members in School Counselor Education are working with the Springfield School District on implementing evidence-based prevention programs focused on academic development.
  
  
• Springfield Armory Website Development
  The School of Education, in partnership with the UMass Amherst History Department and the Center for Educational Software Development, worked with the Springfield Armory to develop an inquiry-based history website for middle and high school students and teachers. Funded by the National Parks Service, the project is directed toward Springfield teachers.
  
  
• Teaching American History Grant
  Springfield Public Schools is one of many school districts in the region served by a three-year Teaching American History grant that began in summer 2006. The School of Education, the Hampshire Educational Collaborative, the UMass Amherst History Department, and the Center for Educational Software Development are partners in the project.
  
  
• Developing School-Based Instructional Support Teams
  The School Psychology program in the School of Education provides well-trained graduate students to the school districts who receive a Reading First Grant to train teachers and administrators in the use of reading assessments designed to improve reading outcomes of children at risk for reading failure. Graduate students work with school-based teams of teachers, specialists, and administrators to collect, interpret, and utilize relevant data to improve the educational/behavioral outcomes of children at risk for school failure. This program takes place in school districts around the state such as Chicopee and North Adams.
  
  
• TEACH Bridges to the Future Pathway
  Established in the Fall of 2004, Bridges to the Future is a partnership with the Orange, Greenfield, Turners Falls and Gill-Montague School Districts. Its central feature is an intensive yearlong teacher education program leading to a Master’s in Education and a Massachusetts initial teacher license and includes a service learning component.
  
  Over 80 Teacher Licenses since 2004
  2008-2009 Enrollment - 24 Master’s students
  
  
• The Franklin County Research Academies for Young Scientists (STEM RAYS)
  Allan Feldman, School of Education, Mort Sternheim, SRRI, and Brian Adams, Greenfield Community College, received a grant from the National Science Foundation, which provides science research programs for rural grade 4-8 students in after-school and summer programs. A unique feature of the project is that it offers the students and their teachers opportunities to conduct authentic environmental research in close association with campus research communities of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates from UMass, Greenfield Community College, and Smith College.
  
  
• Improving Teacher Quality
  Florence Sullivan, School of Education, and Bill Gerace, SRRI, supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, are working with Springfield and Holyoke teachers to develop and implement a middle school physics unit using robotics.
  
  
• Children FIRST (Families Investing in Readiness for School Today)
  Doctoral students in School Psychology in the School of Education are spearheading the Children FIRST project working with parents and staff at Stefanik Elementary School in Chicopee to increase parent involvement in their preschool and Kindergarten age children's schooling.
  
  
• International Research and Exchange
  Marge Magouirk Colbert, School of Education, and a doctoral student are working on an International Research and Exchange project, funded by the U.S. Department of State, that pairs teachers and students from Springfield's Chestnut Hill Middle School, and Athol, Belchertown, Easthampton, and Longmeadow High Schools with teachers and classes in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Classrooms work together on joint online projects, post work online and engage in real time online chats sharing information about projects and culture.
  
  
• Student Teachers
  The School of Education places elementary and secondary student teachers, and graduate students in special education, special education administration, school guidance counseling, reading, and ESL licensure programs in Springfield and Holyoke, among other schools throughout the region.
  
  
• Professional Development Program in Mathematics
  Funded by UMass Amherst Outreach, John Francisco and Kathy Davis are implementing a program that uses the Japanese Lesson Study and involves elementary and middle school mathematics teachers from Springfield schools. The initiative will pilot an innovative way of delivering the initial-licensure mathematics program.