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Asset : Historic Grant Enhances IMPACT
Radford University’s Innovative Mobile Personalized Accelerated Competency Training (IMPACT) program was awarded a threeyear, $13.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) Grant Program, the largest in Radford University history. The grant began on Oct. 1 and runs through Sept. 30, 2020.
The SEED grant will expand IMPACT to include Appalachian Support for Specialized Education Training (ASSET), which includes the development, implementation and evaluation of online, self-paced, competency-based education (CBE) training designed to increase teacher effectiveness in underserved rural Appalachian communities. ASSET will build K-12 teachers’ knowledge and skills to better serve their students in rural Appalachia, including regions in Virginia, Tennessee and West Virginia.
“Through Radford University’s innovative IMPACT Program, ASSET provides a groundbreaking opportunity for our teachers to receive training and support that will further strengthen our economy in Southwest Virginia and the rest of Appalachia,” said former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. “I applaud Radford University and the other grant partners for contributing to the success of this important initiative and assisting in our efforts to build a new Virginia economy by increasing teacher effectiveness and workforce capacity in underserved rural communities.”
The program content and experiences will incorporate simSchool simulations based on the Institute of Educational Sciences (IES) What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) practice guides geared toward increasing teacher effectiveness. ASSET will develop a unique set of five micro-credential stacks in high-demand areas, such as inclusive literacy instruction for elementary and secondary general curriculum classrooms; inclusive math instruction for elementary and secondary general curriculum classrooms; and inclusive problem-solving for high-need secondary students.
“Since our founding more than 100 years ago, Radford University has a long and distinguished record of training educators,” said Radford University President Brian O. Hemphill, Ph.D. “With this historic grant, we can continue our tradition of excellence in training teachers in a new way that reinforces the fact that Radford is at the forefront of teacher education. I commend the work of Drs. Matt Dunleavy, Brooke Blanks, Kenna Colley, Amanda Bozack and Greg Sherman in making this goal a reality,” said Hemphill.
Dunleavy, executive director of IMPACT and project director of ASSET, said that the IMPACT program at Radford University is rapidly developing the Commonwealth’s workforce in cybersecurity and geospatial intelligence, and the same model will be used to address critical shortage areas in K-12 education.
“Our focus is on maximizing the resources we currently have, namely building instructional capacity among our highly committed, longterm teachers working in our rural Appalachian schools,” said Blanks, associate professor of special education. “The ASSET program allows us to give them the knowledge and skills they want without ever having to leave their local communities.”
The ASSET CBE teacher-training program will serve as a national dissemination platform for the IES WWC practice guides, while the ASSET program will develop a replicable and scalable national model for CBE-enabled teacher effectiveness training in critical shortage areas.
“The ASSET grant is a game-changer for professional development for all teachers in rural Appalachia,” said Colley, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs. “The professional development format is accessible, provides research-based interventions that can be easily replicated in classrooms and will be expertly delivered by our faculty in the School of Teacher Education and Leadership (STEL). What an amazing accomplishment for all of us at Radford University.” ■
