The Master of Arts in Teaching program in SPSBE's Graduate Division of Education has received a $40,000 grant to establish a new professional development school program at Baltimore's Dunbar High School.

The grant from the Maryland State Department of Education's Teacher Quality Enhancement Program will be used to improve both student achievement and teacher effectiveness at Dunbar, a school with which Hopkins long has had a cooperative relationship.

In part, the grant will fund the development of an Advanced Placement program that will enable students to take courses for which they can receive college credits, explains Mary Ellen Beaty-O'Ferrall, professional development coordinator in the MAT program. In addition, money from the grant, which also was sought by Amy Wilson, cohort coordinator for the MAT program, and Susan Small, director of the Baltimore Professional Master of Arts in Teaching Program, will fund a 16-session professional development seminar series for Dunbar teachers. The seminars will focus on such subjects as the use of information technology in the classroom, Beaty-O'Ferrall says.

The seminars will be led by teams comprised of faculty from the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, SPSBE's Graduate Division of Education and Dunbar teachers. Hopkins interns in SPSBE's MAT programs will be encouraged to attend along with the Dunbar staff, Beaty-O'Ferrall says.