About
Us
The
Need For ST2
A
critical element in raising student achievement for urban schools is
their capacity to hire and retain highly qualified teachers. Recruiting
and retaining excellent teachers is one of the most serious needs
urban schools face.
Supporting
Teachers, Supporting Teaching (ST2), aims to meet this challenge by
starting at the source, with preservice (student teachers) and teachers
in their first year of teaching. ST2 proposes to ensure that each
preservice teacher or first year teacher in participating Chicago
Public Schools begins a teaching career wit maximum effective support
for thier commitment to urban teaching.
ST2
is a project in which the Chicago Public Schools and the University
of Illinois at Chicago have collaborated to recruit and support highly
qualified new teachers for Chicago Public Schools. ST2 deploys significant
financial and human resources toward achieving this goal, through
the USDOE Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant.
Supporting
Urban Education
UIC
student teachers teaching in one of our 9 partnership schools will
recieve additional support from the program. By offereing extra support
to UIC students or first year teachers participating in our program,
ST2 feels that this support will result in better preparation and
assistance for new teachers, higher retention of these teachers and
better teachers teaching in the participating schools. To ensure maximum
effective support field instructors are required to visit their Student
Teacher (pre-service) four times throughout the semester with a field
consultant from the university. The field consultant will be an expert
in technology, content or culture/community and will observe a lesson
with the field instructor. The GOLDEN Mentor (CPS) and a Mentor Consultant
from the university will offer the same support, however they are
required to observe the first year teacher 6 times for ST2.
We
also offer Professional Learning Communities, Targeted Professional
Development, and stipends for student teachers and first year teachers
to use for classroom materials.
