NCE's Recent Grant News!

The National College of Education is pleased to announce some recent grant news in collaboration with Undergraduate College! 

Leslie Katch, associate professor, reports that the Early Childhood Education team has received a $1.2 million grant from the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) to help build a diverse early childhood faculty pipeline in Illinois. The grant will provide a specialized pathway in the Early Childhood Administration program for students interested in becoming higher education faculty members and will pay for tuition, books, fees, and computers. Students will complete an internship in the Undergraduate College Education Preparation program to build skills in higher education teaching. Grant funding starts early 2023 and ends June 2024, with the goal of serving at least 25 students. 

Nicole Trackman also reports that NCE received a Hawkins Grant! This grant is awarded through the U.S. Department of Education, The Hawkins Center of Educational Excellence. This is a 4-year award will allow NLU and school district partners—Waukegan School District 60, Wheeling Schools in District 214, and North Chicago School District 187—to increase access, participation, and success of multilingual and diverse school paraprofessionals through a residency model that includes: communities of practice, culturally responsive teaching and learning standards, and multilingual supports for academic and licensure success. Ultimately, the model will be replicable for other school districts and district-university partnerships to recruit, grow and retain educators, who will also earn their PEL. 

Finally, IBHE has awarded a second round of Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER) grants to Illinois institutions, including National Louis University! The grant money is used to provide supports, both social-emotional and academic, for students who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially minority students, first-generation students, and working students.