Education center still looking for funding
School to better train teachers for urban schools
By Lauren Hanvey
Staff Reporter

Education faculty say they are still working to find funding for the Center for Urban Education, a program intended to better prepare students to teach in urban schools.

There are now 10 faculty members working on plans for the center, which needs at least $100,000 to pay a director and provide minimum operating costs before it can begin programs, said Mary Patton, an associate professor of education. She said she expects the faculty members will be able to meet by the beginning of March to get more grants written.

“I’m hopeful,” Patton said. “I have to be hopeful.”

The center has written very few grants because it is hard for faculty to find the time it takes to go through the process, said Judy Groulx, an associate professor of education.

Patton said it is difficult to find funding for education because it is not important to very many people.

“I think education is a low priority in this country,” she said.

If it can find money, the center plans to offer programs that teach TCU students about issues specific to urban education, said Cornell Thomas, special assistant to the chancellor for diversity and community.

“Funding is the key right now,” he said.

Leigh Ann Trahan, a senior education major, said she wants to teach in an urban school. She said since she does not have much in common with the children she will likely work with, she fears she will have a hard time relating to them.

Trahan said the Center for Urban Education could be a valuable resource in helping get TCU students ready to teach in a diverse setting.

“There’s a lot of really dedicated education majors who I think would really take advantage of those resources,” Trahan said.

In addition to programs for TCU students, organizers hope to provide resources for teachers already in urban settings, as well as offering TCU scholarships to students coming out of urban high schools who want to teach in similar schools, Patton said.

“Urban kids don’t need significantly different resources than other kids, they just have significantly less resources than other kids,” she said.

The education faculty conceived the idea for the center 12 years ago, but they have not been able to find funding inside or outside of TCU, Thomas said.

Michael Sacken, a professor of education, said the center was close to getting a grant from the Houston Center last year but that the new joint Master of Business Administration and Doctor of Education degree program got the money instead.

The Center for Urban Education has only been officially recognized as a center by TCU since last spring, Patton said. She said education faculty committed to urban education have been meeting since 1995 to plan the center.

Funding has not been the only holdup in getting the center off the ground. Since the state of Texas changed teacher certification requirements, the School of Education has been working to reorganize its whole program, Groulx said. The Center for Urban Education has not been as much of a priority as other changes to the School of Education, she said.

It has been about two years since anyone has been able to devote time to writing grants for the center because of the reorganization of the education program, Groulx said.
However, Patton said the issues most important for urban education are largely incorporated into the reorganization of the School of Education. The structure of the student-teaching program is changing so that education majors will have worked with six to eight different schools, half of them urban, Patton said. Also, all early education majors will be required to become certified in English as a Second Language (ESL), she said.

“That just reflects our commitment to prepare our TCU students to work with diverse students in urban schools,” Patton said.

l.e.hanvey@tcu.edu