Recent Grant Work

Principal Investigator: Dr. Katie Brooks

Indiana has a shortage of licensed English as a New Language (ENL) teachers. Many Indiana schools are providing ENL services through literacy coaches, special education teachers, content area teachers, or paraprofessionals who have little to no training in teaching students who are English learners. In order to address the shortage of qualified ENL teachers, the College of Education applied for and was awarded a US Department of Education Title III National Professional Development grant. In 2016, Dr. Katie Brooks received a U.S. Department of Education grant for two million dollars to train 80 current or potential teachers to become licensed to teach English Language Learning (ELL) students. The PACE (Prepare, Advocate, Collaborate, & Empower) grant, distributed over five years, was intended to help alleviate the chronic shortage of English as a New Language (ENL) teachers.  This funding was planned to allow the COE to train 20 unlicensed teachers or paraprofessionals in a secondary content area and P-12 ENL and 60 practicing, licensed teachers to add a P-12 ENL license to an existing elementary or secondary content area license for licensure in Indiana. The infographic shows that the COE was able to train 70 teachers practicing, licensed teachers to add a P-12 ENL license to an existing elementary or secondary content area license for licensure and 17 unlicensed teachers or paraprofessionals in a secondary content area and P-12 ENL.

The grant paid for tuition, but program participants were responsible for books, testing fees, and other expenses.  This program was sponsored by a grant from the US Department of Education. While the award was for 5 years, funding was awarded on a year to year basis. Annual continuation of the coursework is contingent upon continued federal funding.  As part of the grant, Butler College of Education’s ENL, reading, special education, and early childhood faculty collaborated with each other and with representatives of Indiana immigrant communities to integrate ENL theory, research, and practice throughout the curriculum used to train both content area and ENL teachers.

Principal Investigator: Dr. Brandie Oliver

In 2021, Butler University’s School Counseling program was awarded a GEER grant (Governor’s Emergency Education Relief) from the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) in the amount of $673,131.00. This grant will be used to focus on developing tools/resources for educators, families, and pre-service teaching connected to Social-Emotional Learning (SEL).

The GEER Grant is comprised of the below components:

• SEL Educator Canvas Course
• SEL Parent Training
• SEL Curated Curriculum
• SEL Pre-Service Educator Training
• SEL Specialist Training Course & Support

For more information about this professional development opportunity for educators, download the flyer

Principal Investigator: Dr. Nick Abel

In 2021, the Butler University School Counseling Master’s program was awarded a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services in the amount of $660,000 over 4 years. This award will be used primarily for providing stipends to place more behavioral health professionals in underserved/ high-needs areas during their clinical training. In addition to the stipends, money is also being provided for:

• Students to take one of our LMHC courses (678, Diagnosis and Treatment Planning)
• Schools to purchase evidence-based materials and assessments to use/keep
• Butler School Counseling faculty to organize biannual inter-professional training sessions for our students and employees of the partner schools on various topics related to behavioral health

For more information, please contact the College of Education