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School of Education

Ohio Deans Compact Grant

Project Director: Kathy Winterman

In September 2021, Xavier received year one of a two-year grant from the Ohio Deans Compact on Exceptional Children, supported through Ohio Department of Education funding.  Through the project entitled, Meeting the needs of all learners through a diverse teaching work-force, Xavier will develop models of teacher preparation to increase the number of Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color (BIPOC) educators within the Princeton City Schools and the Greater Cincinnati area.

The intended outcomes of the project will be an increased collaboration among the School of Education faculty and staff, increased communication and collaboration between Xavier and our community partners, specifically our teaming with Princeton City Schools to improve practice provided to our Xavier teaching candidates and Princeton City Schools students and teachers. This will result in the implementation of a new emphasis to increase the diversity of the educator workforce to prepare BIPOC teacher candidates to be licensed to meet the educational needs of a greater diverse student body as well as provide opportunities for all teacher candidates to be better prepared to meet the academic needs of a diverse population.

General grant activities

  • Xavier will partner with Princeton City Schools to establish a BIPOC Cohort Program to support and encourage district paraprofessionals who have bachelor’s degrees to seek initial licensure. (K. Winterman, M. Phillips, K. Jamison)
  • BIPOC Cohort members will be offered a graduate scholarship of $5,000 per person (up to 10 students) based on Ohio Dean’s Compact Funding.
  • Xavier will support a BIPOC Cohort for an undergraduate scholarship of $2,500 per person (up to 10 undergraduate students) based on Ohio Dean’s Compact Funding.
  • Xavier will work with the local teaching academies (10) to encourage BIPOC students to continue their education by matriculating to Xavier to complete their training and teacher licensure program. (J. Googins)
  • Xavier will partner with DePaul Christo Rey High School (a Jesuit High School) to encourage students to matriculate to Xavier University also a Jesuit affiliated entity. Students will also be encouraged to visit and participate in student lead activities. (T. Knestrict)
  • Xavier will continue to work with Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy (downtown location--Otto Armleder Center) on a tennis program that encourages minority middle school students to participate in tennis and academic activities during a summer camp experience. (J. Googins, V. Rigaud)
  • Xavier will continue to offer a summer gifted camp for middle school students with scholarships offered to urban students who need the financial aid. (L.A. Prugh)
  • Xavier will continue to offer summer reading camp for elementary and middle school students with financial aid offerings. (S. Barnhart)
  • Xavier will offer training regarding culturally responsive practices to a cohort of faculty, field supports, community teacher, and students. (K. Winterman, Grant Advisory Board, SOE Leadership)
  • Anti-bias, anti-racism training.
  • Explore training opportunities on understanding and analyzing systemic racism, as well as coaching and consulting services for our grant advisory team at Crossroads Antiracism.
    • The SOE will partner with Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) to facilitate ongoing challenging conversations following the trainings.
    • An implicit bias study will be conducted to following the hiring of local teachers at our partner district. (K. Winterman, Grant Advisory Board, SOE Leadership, Princeton Leadership)
  • Xavier will provide “Community Engaged Learning” opportunities for our teaching candidates where they put their skills into practice by engaging with the Cincinnati community. (T. Young, V. Zascavage, J. Kugler-Ackley, H. Johnson)
  • Xavier faculty will continue to refine teacher preparation curriculum to reflect culturally responsive practices (CRP), high leverage practices (HLPs), (Udl), Trauma Informed Practices, and PBIS. (SOE Leadership)