What should we propose? by Nancy Mctygue

2025-06-06 20:12:03 UTC

Though there are many ways in which UC Davis research and researchers already reach K-12 classrooms, I wonder how we--a group of folks who are connected with / have some understanding of the CA K-12 education system--might be able to support coherent engagement between UC Davis (across colleges) and K-12 classrooms? I am not exactly sure what this looks like, but I have been here for 20+ years (in five different colleges/schools). I have struggled to track the varied connections between research and K-12 education--both the wonderful, productive, thoughtful connections and those that are perhaps a bit "less informed". It all feels very haphazard. (Apologies if there is already a center tracking this.) Graduate students are always looking for ways to connect to classrooms. Professors and centers try to do so as well. I feel like there's an idea bubbling up in here somewhere.

kstephensen1 — 2025-06-06 20:17:11 UTC

4+1 teaching certificate program (for undergraduate students across colleges)

2025-06-06 20:22:43 UTC

Civic engagement program for undergraduate and graduate students that allows them to work in internships with a public-facing purpose. We have a small scale version of this with our Marchand Public Engagement internship program, which trains Ph.D. students to translate scholarship to a K-12 and teacher audience. We also work as a host site with the UC Davis College Corp for undergraduates. This involves connecting students, campus leaders, and community partners. The civic engagement and applied research approaches have been well received in the different populations we work with outside of the university.

tomsmith22 — 2025-06-06 20:24:15 UTC

Fund undergraduates to tutor in area schoolsj

Fund PhD students as community engaged fellows to work with teachers/administrators on aspects of our projects

2025-06-06 20:24:17 UTC

Engaging undergraduate and graduate students in K-12 education, in partnership with school districts, across disciplines would further with work of all departments and interested collaborators. School of Engineering, Letters and Sciences, School of Education, Subject Matter Projects

2025-06-06 20:24:29 UTC

Professional development for campus faculty on inquiry based approaches to teaching. Supporting movement away from lecture based instruction in traditionally lecture based content areas. We often bring professors to TK-12 teachers as content experts, what if we flipped that and brought teachers to the university at pedagogical experts in inquiry based approaches

kstephensen1 — 2025-06-06 20:24:33 UTC

The Center for Excellence in Teacher Education

(collaborative between the local public schools, SOE, all 4 colleges, and the professional schools)

1) physical building akin to the TLC

2) TA-ships for graduate students in both SOE and non-SOE graduate programs who are interested in going into TK-12 education jobs post graduation

3) internships and jobs for undergraduates interested in going into TK-12 education jobs post graduation

4) "faculty fellows" funding (buyout and overload) for faculty across the colleges that are motived by "teaching the next generation of teachers"

(this would need more that the $25million, but something like a Templeton Foundation Grant would be a good supplement as seed money)

tomsmith22 — 2025-06-06 20:25:54 UTC

Host "Teacher Fellows" to spend a quarter/year working with our projects

njmctygue1 — 2025-06-06 20:26:08 UTC

Not sure if this is feasible, but I also wonder about building internal capacity for ongoing development / fundraising, so that an initial investment could also lead to more funding in the future?

njmctygue1 — 2025-06-06 20:27:30 UTC

Could we do something that connects with the UC Center or Aggie Square so that UCD's profile as a leader in TK-12 Education could be developed / leveraged?

2025-06-06 20:27:48 UTC

No proposal here, but I'd really like to see any work we do prioritize diversifying the CA TK-12 teacher workforce

2025-06-06 20:30:26 UTC

Another area of influence is with PhDs in the disciplines who are interested in going to teaching-focused campuses. UCD has a robust group of Professors of Teaching and some coordination among them but this seems like it could be part of the bigger picture. So really k-16 education

tomsmith22 — 2025-06-06 20:32:20 UTC

Who else should we invite to collaborate? Some of the 4-H people in CAES do interesting work in schools on Sociao-emotional learning

2025-06-06 20:32:48 UTC

I'd love to see something where there is funding across the schools for K-12 teacher education that is a competition. Within each school, there is competition for developing a project that meets needs (with criteria and guidelines) with regular meetings among participants

tomsmith22 — 2025-06-06 20:37:39 UTC

Effective and ethical use of A

2025-06-06 20:38:04 UTC

Create an entity that teaches how to effectively use AI and support local school districts. Big need in this area.

kstephensen1 — 2025-06-06 21:04:01 UTC

Pathways for Inclusive Excellence in Teaching - a UC Davis clearinghouse for pre-service teacher recruitment and teacher retention

Open-access, web-based dashboard hosted by the UCD SOE website that houses all pre-service teacher education opportunities on campus in a centralized location. This would be a way to convene the wonderful teacher education/teacher retention work already happening across campus in one place (digitally).

Open application for all UCD staff/faculty/students for the following opportunities:

This provides a competitive, application based model that would cut across potential teachers and teacher educators (meaning undergrads, grad students, faculty). This also captures on a specific "moment in time" emphasis by providing additional funding to programs that are already doing this work across campus but are currently seeing a loss in federal/state funds.

undergraduates –
- internship/jobs for "pre-teaching" experiential learning
- connect with DJUSD to promote local public-school jobs/shadowing/volunteering opportunities
- fully funded Quarter @ Aggie Square experience that is an immersive teacher education opportunity in Sacramento Public Schools
graduate students –
- fully-funded TAships for graduate students who are in non-SOE programs but want to go into teaching (they would be assigned to a “faculty fellow” in the SOE who supports their learning)
faculty –
- "mini-grants" to fund their research
- "faculty fellow" funding (buyout or AEF model) for non-SOE faculty to teach in the SOE on a quarter-to-quarter or one-to-two-year model