Shippensburg University faculty awarded $340,000 grant

Governor Wolf awarded Shippensburg University Pennsylvania’s Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge grant.

The College of Education and Human Services, led by grant writer Dr. Jennifer Pyles, assistant professor of teacher education, won one of only three Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge grants awarded in the state.

The grant provides seed money to develop programs designed to strengthen early childhood education. Shippensburg will use the grant to develop a Center for Early Childhood Education that will reach out into the community.

University educators will also use the grant to develop career pathway for aspiring teachers. It will also include a teacher academy program.

“The teachers in those programs will get multiple hours of course work aligned with field based experiences. So we’ll be going to them in their centers, in their classrooms and delivering instruction that’s aligned with their everyday work,” Pyles said.

The grant is a partnership between the Pennsylvania Departments of Education and Human Services Office of Child Development and Early Learning and the Pennsylvania Department of Education Office of Postsecondary and Higher Education.