Staff Report
Norfolk State University has been awarded a $1.1 million grant for education majors from the U.S. Department of Education, the school announced last Wednesday.
The grant, called Student Support Services - Teacher Preparation, will support 140 pre-service teacher education candidates by helping them prepare to become teachers. The grant, which will run through 2020, will be administered through the School of Education.
Leon Rouson, associate professor and principal investigator, said the grant will provide participants with mentoring and tutoring, equip them with financial literacy and test-taking skills, and pay for professional tests and organization fees.
Each year the grant will provide roughly $220,000 in funding over its five-year period. It is a continuation of a $1 million grant made to NSU in 2010. Under the 2010 grant, education majors had a 92 percent retention rate from freshman to sophomore year, had 94 percent of students earn a 2.50 or higher GPA, and had a 59 percent five-year graduation rate.
According to Rouson, these rates are much higher than those of the NSU general student population and nonparticipants.
Additionally, the School of Education saw an increase in test scores for those who participated in the program. Those who completed the program posted a 100 percent pass rate on all state teacher licensure assessments.