Pfeiffer University’s Division of Education has been awarded $4.3 million by the U.S. Department of Education to help recruit, train, support and retain effective educators in high-need, high-poverty, rural schools who can positively impact student academic achievement.

Pfeiffer and its grant partners, Stanly County Schools and Montgomery County Schools, will focus efforts on building models for teacher preparation and new teacher support or induction to ensure that teachers are able to support the needs of high-poverty, rural, English Language Learners, special education, STEM and elementary students, ensuring that the new teachers have the skills to impact student achievement.

“This is an exciting opportunity for Pfeiffer, its Division of Education, and two of its long-standing partner school districts,” said Pfeiffer President Colleen Perry-Keith. “Ongoing, collaborative partnerships have existed between the schools and Pfeiffer for a long time. This grant will allow those relationships to expand in new ways.”

Pfeiffer’s teacher education program has produced a large contingent of educators who teach in Stanly and Montgomery counties.

The Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) program aims to increase student achievement by improving the quality of new teachers. The Department of Education awards competitive grants to partnerships comprised of colleges and universities and high-needs schools that are developing model teacher preparation programs.

Pfeiffer’s award is one of two North Carolina-based projects out of a total of 17 grantees selected by the Department of Education.

“REPERTOIRE (Recruiting Educators, Preparing Educators, and Retaining Teachers to Optimize Interest in Rural Education) will allow us to leverage existing exemplary programming and services while developing new initiatives to recruit, train, support, and retain highly qualified teachers to serve the needs of the diverse learners in both Stanly and Montgomery County schools,” said Christopher Boe, dean of Pfeiffer’s division of education. “The ultimate goal of this grant program is to provide a great teacher in every classroom for every student.”

Pfeiffer University’s teacher education programs are nationally accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and approved by the North Carolina Board of Education.