GinGee Moy, Coordinator: 908-303-1844
P4Q is a partnership between Bank Street College of Education and two New York City public schools in the South Bronx. The goal of the partnership is to develop, recruit, and retain quality teachers in high need New York City public schools.
By providing Bank Street candidates with at least a year of graduate course work, placing them in schools that are working in collaboration with Bank Street, and offering professional development via Bank Street faculty and on site faculty mentors, the grant hopes to provide support to meet the needs of beginning teachers working in hard to staff schools. This project also hopes to provide Bank Street candidates with the important opportunity to work as a certified teacher while completing their degrees.
Bank Street candidates who are qualified to work under the New York State Internship Certificate Credential are eligible to be participants in the partnership. Candidates are eligible for an internship certificate when they: a) are offered a teaching position in writing; and b) have completed 50% of their Bank Street degree program.
P4Q participants who teach in partner schools receive considerable professional development and mentoring support including:
By offering these supports, the Partnership hopes to ease teachers' entry into the profession, thereby improving instruction and teacher retention.
The grant pays the salary of two Bank Street interns in each school. With the time created by the additional teacher, the principal is able to assign other teachers to act as teacher leaders or mentors as well as create planning and collaboration time for the new teachers their team. In each subsequent year, the "free teachers" fill a vacancy in the school and are hired and paid for with the school's base budget. Then new Bank Street interns will be hired and paid for by the grant. Each new year brings "full" Bank Street graduates to the school faculty and new interns. In this way, the grant hopes to grow cohorts of exemplary teachers who plan and work together. Bank Street graduates who work in these schools will also be part of the cohort and receive many of the same supports and opportunities.
Bank Street and the Department of Education collaboratively selected the two partner schools, which are viewed as schools that are making positive changes, with leadership teams that aligned with Bank Street's philosophy and are enthusiastic supporters of the partnership.
Anyone wishing to be involved in the project should be committed to the goals of the grant. This means a commitment to working in high need public schools, and also a commitment and understanding that to create school environments that foster quality teaching and learning over the long term, there must be increased retention of new, quality teachers. Participants will be expected to participate in the summer work, cohort meetings and mentoring throughout the school year. Participants are also expected to fulfill a one-year minimum teaching commitment in the schools.
For more information about the partnership please contact GinGee Moy or Diane Stenglein.