Aspiring teachers participate in the Project Pipeline Repair Summer Residency Program at Alcorn
The Department of Education and Psychology at Alcorn State University is leading the way in preparing high school males for a future in education.
Nine high school male students from surrounding areas (Adams, Claiborne, Jefferson, and Warren counties) participated in the Project Pipeline Repair: Restoring Minority Male Participation and Persistence in Educator Preparation Program Sunday, June 3 through Friday, June 8 at Alcorn's main campus in Lorman. The project engages state policy leaders, educator preparation programs for historically black colleges and universities, and partner schools to achieve goals and objectives.
Alcorn is the first of four Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs: Arkansas Pine Bluff, Claflin, and Southern Universities) who are partnering with their State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) to increase the number of underrepresented male teachers. SHEEO was recently awarded a three-year grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to fund Project Pipeline.
Dr. Malinda Butler, director of Alcorn's Project Pipeline program and associate dean of the Department, believes that the project will provide educational opportunities for the students that will benefit them in the future.
"I see the program as a way to close academic achievement gaps and increase college readiness for participating males through extensive academic enrichment programming during their junior and senior years of high school," said Butler.
Butler also said that the program would instill principles that will help the students in their teaching careers.
"It will also be used to encourage students that teaching is a great career and having compassion for the improvement of student academic achievement is noble."
