BGSU awarded grant to help diversify, improve the education profession

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – Bowling Green State University was recently awarded a grant by the Ohio Deans Compact on Exceptional Children to help diversify and improve the capacity of the education profession. The funding is tied to two priorities outlined by the compact under its 'Improving the Capacity of Ohio Institutions of Higher Education to Prepare All Educators to Better Meet the Needs of All Learners' initiative.

With the grant, the Northwest Ohio Center for Excellence in STEM Education (NWO STEM), housed in the BGSU College of Education and Human Development (EDHD), will continue a partnership with Washington Local Schools in Toledo to implement its model to recruit, support, retain and sustain people of color in the education field and the workforce at large.

Together, NWO STEM and Washington Local Schools are implementing a program called Project EDUCATE — Educators of Diversity: Unified and Collaborative to Aspire Teacher Education — to increase educator diversity by engaging and placing students from underrepresented groups on a meaningful and impactful pathway to becoming an educator.

“This partnership will allow BGSU and the College of Education and Human Development to build a quality learning community that fosters diversity and inclusion, collaboration, creativity and excellence," EDHD Dean Dawn Shinew said. "It will also increase the recruitment, retention and success of a diverse student body, faculty, staff and administration.”

Dr. Kadee Anstadt, superintendent of Washington Local Schools, said she's also pleased by news of the grant as it builds upon work already begun in the district, which identifies and recruits teachers of color to the Whitmer Career and Technology Teaching Professions Program.

“Employing teachers who look like and have similar experiences as students in our district is a priority,” Anstadt said.

Project EDUCATE was also selected by the Ohio Department of Education in May as a recipient of its Diversifying the Education Profession grant program to implement strategies to address diversity needs in Washington Local Schools' faculty and staff over the next two and a half years.

The Ohio Deans Compact operates with support from the Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Department of Higher Education.