Irvine, CA - The non-profit JAMS Foundation announced today a $300,000 grant that is funding a two-year initiative that enables Conflict Resolution Education for student teachers and in-service teachers in four major U.S. cities. To operate the initiative, the JAMS Foundation is collaborating with three organizations: Temple University’s Conflict Resolution Education in Teacher Education (CRETE) program, nonprofit Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR) and nonprofit Creative Response to Conflict (CRC).
The JAMS Foundation is dedicated to providing grant resources to organizations that work to reduce conflicts and provide tools to resolve conflict before it occurs. The goal of this program is to build partnerships between Colleges of Education and local school districts through a process that equips teachers with the conflict resolution skills necessary to manage their classroom. To date, Confliction Resolution Education (CRE) programs have been used to train students, but not teachers or school administrators. The JAMS Foundation Teacher Training Program seeks to trigger a special emphasis on the importance of conflict resolution skills in undergraduate and graduate teacher education programs, and – for teachers who are already in the classroom – to provide on-the-job training.
“This program offers teachers training that will make their classrooms more productive learning environments, and the JAMS Foundation is proud to enable such an important endeavor,“ said Jay Folberg, Executive Director of the JAMS Foundation. “Our partnership with CRETE, ESR and CRC shapes a tremendous platform from which to achieve that progress.”
As leaders of the initiative, Tricia S. Jones, head of the CRETE program at Temple University, ESR Executive Director Larry Dieringer, and CRC Executive Director Priscilla Prutzman are facilitating collaboration between CRE experts, teaching colleges and local school districts through which the training is being implemented. The pre-service teacher training is geared toward undergraduate and graduate education students, while the in-service training is designed for teachers who are already working in a classroom. Relationships between college administrators and school district administrators are established in each city by an executive committee that facilitates planning, communication, and evaluation of the program.
“The ability of teachers to deal with conflict effectively is fundamental to their ability to teach,” said Jones. “Schools in urban areas lose about half of their teachers in their first 2-3 years of service because the teachers weren’t provided training to cope with the classroom conflict they encounter. A critical component to this program is its ability to set up new teachers for success by preparing them before they enter the classroom.”
Training has already started in New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., and will soon begin in San Francisco.
About the JAMS Foundation
The non-profit JAMS Foundation is the largest private provider of ADR-related grants in the world. The Foundation was established in 2002 by JAMS, The Resolution Experts, the nation’s premier provider of alternative dispute resolution services, and is funded by JAMS mediators, arbitrators and employee associates who contribute a percentage of their income. The JAMS Foundation has provided nearly $2.3 million in grant funding since its inception. www.jamsfoundation.org
Founded in 1979, JAMS has Resolution Centers nationwide. JAMS and its more than 250 full-time mediators and arbitrators are responsible for resolving thousands of important cases each year. JAMS may be reached at 800-352-5267.