duPont Foundation helps establish new master's program for teachers

In North Carolina 50 percent of all teachers quit teaching within the first five years of their careers. With a gift from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, the School of Education intends to reduce that number.

The duPont Fund has given a grant of $236,500 to support the Master's Degree for Experienced Teachers program in the School of Education over the next three years.

The program is the cornerstone of the Carolina Teaching Network, an innovative approach that helps K-12 teachers get their master's degree without having to leave their current teaching positions. Teachers gather at off-campus meeting places near their communities, schools and homes. Professors and teaching assistants work with experienced teachers over time on topics that they and their school district have designated as important to the development of their school.
Madeleine Grumet, dean of the School of Education, envisions a return to the era when the study of education was a group project, shared by a community of parents, teachers and administrators to help a community of students.

The program brings teachers in the same school together for instruction and anticipates that those teachers will work together in research teams to address problems they confront in the classroom.
"What the master's for experienced teachers gave us was an opportunity to work with people, some of whom have taught four years, some of whom have taught 28 years," Grumet said. "These teachers have real commitments to their schools, to school communities and to other teachers in their program."

"This grant meets our goal of encouraging universities to bring their resources to bear on community issues," said Sherry Magill, president of the duPont Fund. "It also reflects our commitment to teacher quality and providing the absolute best instruction for our children. In general, teachers are not supported as well as they should be by school systems or the public at large. They deserve quality professional development, and public school children deserve the best teachers have to offer. The UNC program provides an unique opportunity in that it brings teachers into relationship with one another in an effort to meet tough classroom challenges, and to provide excellent instruction for kids."

Magill expressed her admiration for the commitment and optimism of faculty members at the School of Education, particularly Madeleine Grumet, dean of the school, and professor Bill Burke, who recently retired after 28 years at the school "They never talk about barriers," said Magill. "They only talk about solutions to strengthen the network of support for teachers."

The Jessie Ball duPont Fund was created in 1976 by the bequest of Jessie Ball duPont, the wife of industrialist Alfred I. duPont. The fund supports programs and institutions, primarily in the South, in which Jessie Ball duPont took a keen interest.

-Kristina Casto '01