The Bush Foundation announced today that Bethel University is one of 14 higher education institutions that will receive funding to support an initiative to transform teacher preparation in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Bethel will partner with 5 Twin Cities schools: Augburg, Concordia-St. Paul, Hamline, St. Catherine, and St. Thomas, in what is known as the Twin Cities Teacher Collaborative (TC2). The Bush Foundation will invest more than $40 million over the next decade, including $7 million with TC2.

“Preparing well qualified teachers has been a key part of Bethel’s academic program for decades,” says Bethel University President Jay Barnes. “We are deeply thankful to the Bush Foundation and our educational partners for the opportunity to be part of the next wave of teacher preparation. Recruiting, educating, and mentoring the next cohort of teachers is a vital part of helping our state and our country educate future generations of students who will carry our country and our economy into a healthy future.”

As part of the initiative, the partnering institutions will transform how they recruit, prepare, place and support new teachers and how they work with their K-12 partner schools. Each institution will launch a unique strategy that plays to the institution’s strengths, while challenging the status quo to ensure the teachers they prepare will be highly effective. Innovative concepts include targeted recruiting of uniquely qualified students representing diverse groups, integration of co-teaching strategies, creation of residency programs to provide teacher candidates with full-year immersion experiences, deep partnerships with K-12 school districts, and ongoing support beyond the licensure program to new teachers through in-person and online mentoring programs.

The 14 schools participating in the initiative are:

“Research has shown that while many factors play a role in educational success, effective teaching makes a bigger difference than any other in-school variable,” Bush Foundation President Peter Hutchinson said when announcing the initiative. “Research also shows that when students consistently experience effective teaching, there are no achievement gaps. By forming partnerships with institutions who are willing to assure that children across these three states will have effective teachers, we believe that over the decade we can significantly raise the achievement of every student and reduce disparities among student groups.”

“Teacher preparation is a part of the fabric of our society because teachers affect every child in the country,” says Debra Harless, vice president and dean for the College of Arts & Sciences at Bethel University. “I’m excited about the partnership and the opportunity to dream and plan with other experts in the education field. This is a moment for us to work together in new ways in higher education that have the potential for significant impact in the lives of children and families.”