Buffalo State College will participate in a newly awarded federal grant to help the State University of New York (SUNY) enhance the preparation of future classroom teachers through the use of program assessment.

The three-year $682,769 grant from the federal Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) will support collaboration between the 15 SUNY institutions that prepare teachers and SUNY System Administration to develop and implement a new system to assess the ability of prospective teachers to help K-12 students learn. The program will be managed by Dr. Suzanne Weber, associate dean of SUNY Oswego’s School of Education, and Dr. John Porter, associate provost at SUNY System Administration.

Buffalo State will receive $45,000 of the federal money to help build a database that will track teacher education candidates.

The goal is to enhance beginning teacher competency and SUNY teacher education programs across the state, said Weber. SUNY prepares about 25 percent of the more than 20,000 new teachers recommended by colleges and universities for certification in New York state each year.

In announcing the grant, State University of New York Chancellor Robert L. King said, “SUNY teacher education programs have long been recognized for a commitment to excellence. Our students continue to outperform their peers on the state certification exams. I am very pleased Professor Weber and Associate Provost Porter have won this highly competitive grant, but more importantly, I look forward to the positive impact their work will have on our exceptional teacher education programs.”

The project is expected to result in a well-rounded assessment model that can help judge and predict what makes a successful teacher better than standardized test scores alone can, Weber said. “This is about teachers knowing the subject matter, but it’s also about predicting whether teachers can engage children in learning,” she said.

“This grant complements the component of the University’s New Vision in Teacher Education action agenda designed to improve the quality of teacher preparation and assure continuing program quality,” said State University of New York Provost Peter D. Salins. “I am looking forward to working with the project team in the grant’s development.”

Weber and Porter will co-manage the grant, much of which will be redistributed to SUNY’s teacher education programs to enable implementation of the assessment model. “We will devise systems that provide valuable feedback to campuses for their use in program enhancement,” said State University of New York Associate Provost John Porter.

A symposium Oct. 2 and 3 at the Marx Hotel in Syracuse will advance the project. Faculty and administrators from the 15 participating SUNY institutions and SUNY system officials will attend the Teacher Education Assessment Symposium. Such symposia will be held twice a year to promote the collaboration and feedback required to make the project succeed, Weber said.

The 15 participating campuses are the colleges at Buffalo, Brockport, Cortland, Fredonia, Geneseo, New Paltz, Old Westbury, Oneonta, Oswego, Plattsburgh and Potsdam and the universities at Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook.

The federal FIPSE grant will finance 41 percent of the State University’s initiative in teacher education assessment The 15 campuses are sharing the remaining 59 percent of the project costs, or $984,016.