ASU Faculty Receive Teacher Quality Grants

Three Angelo State University faculty members have been awarded U.S. Department of Education grants through the Teacher Quality Grants program for projects aimed at aiding the professional development of area K-12 teachers in various subjects.

Dr. Christine Purkiss, associate professor of teacher education, has been granted $129,328 through a sub-award with Abilene Christian University for her project titled “Earth Science: It’s Elementary.”            The project focuses on providing 5th grade elementary school teachers with effective methods to teach earth science to their students.

Dr. David Bixler, chair of the ASU Physics and Geosciences Department, has been granted $121,381 through a sub-award with Abilene Christian University to continue the project titled “Physics Teacher Quality.”  His efforts focus on high school science teachers, who mostly are trained to teach biology and chemistry, to bring them up to speed on teaching physics.

Dr. Donna Gee, professor of teacher education, has been granted $107,726 through a sub-award with the University of Texas of the Permian Basin for the project titled “West Texas Mathematics Consortium” in conjunction with faculty at UTPB and Abilene Christian.  The project will provide professional development for middle school mathematics teachers with a focus on measurement, which is one of the lowest performance areas among middle school math students across the state.

The Teacher Quality Grant program is administered by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for the purpose of improving elementary and secondary education by providing teachers with intensive professional development workshops and activities in specific subject areas.

For more information on the individual projects, contact Purkiss at 325-486-6954, Bixler at 325-942-2242 or Gee at 325-486-6952.