PLEASE NOTE: No new proposals will be accepted for 2010 grant awards. The 2010 funds will support renewal of the 2009 grants providing documentation of adequate progress toward meeting first-year program award goals.

The Improving Teacher Quality Grants are part of a federally funded program designed to help states and local school districts ensure that all students have effective teachers; that is, teachers with subject-matter knowledge and teaching skills necessary to help all students achieve to high academic standards, regardless of individual learning styles or needs.

Program Overview

Nationally, Congress appropriated over $2.9 billion for Improving Teacher Quality Grants for the 2009-2010 academic year. Minnesota's formula-based share was $38,482,785. Most of this was allocated to the Minnesota Department of Education and to local school districts to support programming that allows students to obtain a high quality education and reach proficiency in challenging state academic standards.

From the Minnesota share, $1,000,533 was made available for the Office of Higher Education to support 23 projects for the 2009 Improving Teacher Quality awards. Project directors for the 23 grants successfully met funding criteria to offer professional development activities in the designated core academic subjects of mathematics, science, civics and government, economics, history, and geography. For grants in mathematics, priority was given to proposals designed to prepare K-8 teachers to improve the preparation of students for algebra I and more rigorous mathematics courses in high school. Grant criteria further stipulated that:

• Projects must be reflective of Minnesota's academic standards.
• The professional development must be focused on improving teacher effectiveness and grounded in scientifically-based research.
• Projects must produce a demonstrable and measurable effect on student achievement.
• Each project must focus on strengthening instruction and academic achievement at schools from high need districts, with need defined by the Census Bureau's poverty data.

More than $14 million dollars have been awarded over the past 25 years for higher education and school district partnership programs to support intensive and sustained professional development for K-12 teachers in core academic areas.

For more information on the Improving Teacher Quality State Grants, contact Dr. Nancy Walters at nancy.walters@state.mn.us or 651-259-3907.