About Discovery

The Discovery Institute's Funding

The Discovery Institute has received support from the City University of New York and the College of Staten Island and is also funded through the grants listed below. As often as possible, the Discovery Institute integrates its funds towards the single goal of enhancing teaching, and funds from disparate grants are often combined to support a variety of activities.

• The Carl Perkins Tech. Prep. Program
  This project of the New York State Education Department and the New York City Department of Education supports the teachers in four NYC high schools in developing technical-career oriented and academically sound programs for junior and senior students who have fallen out of the college preparatory track. The fundamental purpose of this project is to recycle these students through an interesting but rigorous program so they will graduate from high school prepared to pursue a technological career, but also prepared to attend college if they so choose.

• The City University of New York College Now Program
  This project includes several different and separately funded programs, all of which contribute to CUNY's efforts towards reducing the need for student remediation and attracting well-prepared students, including:
  
  College Now / CSI Prep: This project provides a variety of services geared towards better preparing high school students for successful entry into CUNY. Its major initiative is weekly curriculum development workshops in which teachers of over 7000 11th and 12th grade students at 10 Staten Island and Brooklyn high schools develop discovery-based, interdisciplinary classroom activities focused around themes such as legal studies, medical technology, bio-technology, business, American studies, pre-engineering, and the "teaching academy." In addition, students from these schools visit CSI to engage in science and computer labs, attend theatrical performances, and participate in writing workshops. Approximately 180 academically qualified students also took and passed specially designated college courses at CSI during 2002.
  
  College Now / 9th and 11th Grade Pilots: These projects target 9th grade students who are projected to become remedial because they have begun high school with an academic rank between the 20th and 50th percentile. The projects follow these students from 9th through 11th grades, during which they are blocked into the same classes with the same teachers, who engage in weekly curriculum development workshops to create discovery-based, interdisciplinary, and skills-oriented activities. This project is based in three Staten Island and Brooklyn schools, and now reaches a total of 900 students.
  
  College Now / Summer Program: This project supports 30 teachers in the above programs to work in the Discovery Institute's summer program for talented high school students, alongside the 35 teachers who conduct the summer program. The teachers use the summer program to develop ideas for after-school projects that their own College Now students will work on during the academic year.
  
  College Now / Humanities: This project supplements the 9th and 11th Grade Pilot projects above, by funding teachers to develop and implement a special additional pre- or after- school high school course in the humanities. In the course, students further develop academic skills through global studies supplemented by related literature.

• The U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Education (FIE)
  
  
• The National Institutes of Health
  
  
• The National Parks of New York Harbor
  Brooklyn College and the College of Staten Island of the City University of New York are collaborating with the National Park Service (NPS) to develop the National Parks of New York Harbor Education Center to serve a multi-faceted audience. This partnership will engage the K-12 student population of the New York Harbor region on both sides of the Hudson River, in-service and pre-service teachers of grades K-12, higher education faculty and students, non-formal educators and the community as a whole.

• The National Science Foundation
  
  
• The New York City Council
  

• The New York State Teacher Leadership Quality Program (TLQP)
  Prior to 2002, this program was called the Dwight David Eisenhower program; it supports various aspects of the Institute's professional development of teachers and recruitment of future teachers through the Teaching Scholars program. In fact, this project has supported the Discovery Institute's professional development activities from their inception more than a decade ago. The Institute's model for professional development was first developed in implementation of this project, and this NYSED grant should rightly be considered the seed from which the Institute has grown and by which it is still comprehensively informed.

• The New York State Goals 2000 Program
  

• The New York State/HESC Gear Up Program
  Funds supplement the Gear Up Partnership (below) and particularly target Curtis and New Dorp High Schools. A further supplement, awarded to the Institute in the Fall of 2002, is directed towards assisting Hunter College and New York Technical College implement the Discovery Institute's professional development model within their own state Gear Up programs.
  
  

• The New York State Teacher Opportunity Corps (TOC)
  This project funds activities aimed at recruiting teachers for and supporting teachers in "at risk" schools. The most distinguishing feature of the Discovery Institute's TOC project is the special courses we offer for beginning, uncertified, or under-prepared teachers to help them develop, implement, and evaluate engaging classroom lessons on a weekly basis.
  
  
• The Teachers After School Corporation (TASC)
  
  
• The U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE)
  Funds are primarily directed towards the College Skills Institute.
  
  
• The U.S. Department of Education Gear Up Partnership
  The Gear Up Partnership aims to intervene in the lives of children-at-risk as early as 6th and 7th grade by enriching their academic experiences in ways that significantly improve their chances of attending college. The Discovery Institute has targeted the entire population of I.S. 49 on Staten Island and Curtis and New Dorp High Schools, the two major schools it feeds. Funds are directed towards intensive professional development for teachers, extensive classroom and after-school tutoring by Teaching Scholars, organized parental involvement activities, and exposure to higher education and career possibilities through campus visits.
  
  
• The U.S. Department of Education Teacher Quality Enhancement (TQE) recruitment
  The Teacher Quality Enhancement Program seeks to recruit teachers from the pool of qualified college students who may not otherwise have planned to become teachers, by providing satisfying classroom teaching experiences followed by early career support. The Discovery Institute directs these funds towards the costs of recruiting Teaching Scholars and providing orientation, hourly pay, support and professional development services during their early teaching careers. Funds also provide tuition reimbursement for those who decide to pursue teacher certification as undergraduates.
  
  
• The U.S. Department of Education Teacher Quality Enhancement Partnership (TQEP)
  The Teacher Quality Enhancement Partnership is focused on developing highly qualified elementary school teachers; the Discovery Institute directs these funds towards elementary school participation in its programs, beginning with Teaching Scholar placement in elementary classrooms, and progressing through year-long practicum workshops, on-site mentoring, and weekly curriculum development workshops after the first year of teaching.
  
  
• The U.S. Department of Education Transition to Teaching (TTT) Program
  The Transition to Teaching Program seeks to recruit teachers from qualified college students who may not otherwise have planned to become teachers by providing satisfying classroom teaching experiences and supporting them in the initial stages of their lives as teachers. The Discovery Institute directs funds towards recruiting high performing college students who are about to graduate from college into the Teaching Scholars program, where they work 15-20 hours during their senior year. Those who decide to become teachers as a result of their experience are sponsored through an alternative state-approved teacher certification program leading to a master's degree. Funds also provide orientation, hourly pay, a special "survival course," on-site support during the first year of teaching and professional development services thereafter.
  
  
• The U.S. Department of Labor Net Tech. Program