Ensuring Content Knowledge Preparation of Teacher Education Candidates at UK: A Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant Proposal for the Curriculum Review and Response Strand

This proposal is submitted in response to a Request for Proposals (RFP) from the Kentucky Education Professional Standards Board through its Teacher Quality Enhancement Program. Three strands are identified in the RFP: the Curriculum Review and Response Strand; the Data Collection, Analysis, and Accountability Strand; and the Teacher Performance Strand. Funds are requested to support institutional work associated with the Curriculum Review and Response Stand only; however, the institution is required to document involvement in the other two strands. Funding is for a one-year period but may be renewed in 2004 and 2005 contingent upon successful progress toward the stated goals and objectives during the first year of the project. Following a brief description of past and current collaborative initiatives among faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Education at the University of Kentucky, the proposal outlines a plan to review and align teacher preparation curriculum at UK with Kentucky's P-12 curriculum, giving particular attention to content area courses. Specifically, over a three-year period, the institutional review will (1) determine the disconnects between the curriculum students are taught in their postsecondary coursework and the curriculum they must teach when they enter P-12 classrooms and (2) attempt to address these disconnects through revisions in the teacher preparation curriculum. During the first year of implementation, the project will develop a model for the curriculum review and alignment initiative, host a university-wide conference on teacher preparation curriculum alignment, and initiate a review of content courses in the Early Elementary Edllcation Program and the Learning and Behavior Disorders Program. In years two and.,diree of the project, attention will focus on curriculum review and alignment~ttorts for other teacher preparation programs at the University of Kentucky.