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A pair of collaborations this summer are helping spread the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga name across the state.<\/p>\n
Partnering with the Niswonger Foundation in Greeneville, Tennessee, the UTC Center for Professional Education (CPE) is providing advanced placement training to more than 300 Tennessee high school teachers across the state over this summer and next.<\/p>\n
With the Mid-Cumberland Community Action Agency, CPE also is providing career and workforce development training to individuals in a seven-county service area surrounding Nashville.<\/p>\n
According to CPE Director John Freeze, both collaborations tie into a UT System strategic initiative of showcasing how its institutions can impact communities across the state regardless of the campus location.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of our opportunities have been here in Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia, but these new initiatives align nicely with the UT System strategic plan,\u201d said Freeze, who serves on the UT System\u2019s Outreach and Engagement Strategic Plan Committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UT System is trying to cultivate and create a story that, no matter the component, division or sector, a University of Tennessee campus or institute is out there in the community, engaged and doing real and meaningful work.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe simple fact about these two partnerships is that we are now involved in counties outside the geographic footprint that we would traditionally serve, yet we have the capacity and the capability to do that. That\u2019s very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CPE alliance with the Niswonger Foundation came together quickly after the Tennessee Department of Education selected the organization in April to develop and support a new Advanced Placement Access for All program to help more students earn college credit while in high school.<\/p>\n
Gina Pavlovich, director of AP Access for All and Niswonger Online, said the new program provides students across the state access to advanced placement courses virtually, ultimately eliminating financial barriers and supporting student enrollment in AP coursework not currently offered at their home high school.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are in a small high school with 200 kids and you only have five who want to take AP Biology, then you can\u2019t hire a teacher to teach five kids. Or you can\u2019t take another science teacher out of a class of 25 to teach just five kids,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw the larger high schools could offer anything and everything, and then we saw those smaller high schools were sometimes struggling to offer the basics to their students.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we said, \u2018How can we level the playing field so that students\u2014no matter where they live\u2014can have access to these excellent courses?\u2019 Even if it\u2019s something that has never been offered in the classroom at their brick-and-mortar high school, they can now add it to their course offerings list and give those kids the opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more than a decade, the foundation has enrolled four or five students from several small and rural schools and blended them into one larger AP class, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we put in a highly-qualified Tennessee-licensed teacher to teach these kids from all over the state,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen the AP Access grant opened up, it allowed us to increase our AP training, and that\u2019s how our partnership with UTC started.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearly 120 Niswonger-sponsored teachers are participating in this year\u2019s Chattanooga AP Summer Institute (APSI) via online workshops, Pavlovich said, and the hope is to double that figure next summer.<\/p>\n
According to CPE-provided data, the addition of Niswonger participants increased this summer\u2019s overall total of APSI members to a program-record 616 teachers, with the total number of instructors coming from 41 different states.<\/p>\n
Just how essential is that training? Freeze cited an example that, if 300 AP-trained instructors teach just one AP class of 20 students per year, then 6,000 Tennessee high school students would have access to an AP course. Many of those students come from at-risk and distressed counties.<\/p>\n
Many students who ultimately will benefit from the organization\u2019s collaboration with CPE come from those counties, said Nancy Dishner, president and CEO of the Niswonger Foundation. Creating this partnership ensures that this type of work continues, she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy getting more teachers involved, you create sustainability,\u201d said Dishner, who formerly served as vice provost for enrollment services and director of the Roan Scholars Leadership Program at East Tennessee State University.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile it\u2019s extremely important that we get those students wanting to take AP courses, what will really sustain this work is the teacher training.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, CPE\u2019s partnership with the MCCAA involves workforce development in Rutherford, Sumner, Robinson, Trousdale, Cheatham, Wilson and Williamson counties.<\/p>\n