Georgia Institute of Technology - Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL)

The Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning originated in 1986 as a result of a faculty committee’s deliberations. CETL has primarily served as a faculty development center, assisting faculty in their teaching skills through improved lecturing; and through administering the Institute Course/Instructor Opinion Survey (CIOS). Through generous support of several alumni classes, the Center has been able to run a number of specialized programs for junior faculty and graduate teaching assistants; and was honored with the prestigious TIAA-CREF Hesburgh Award in 1999 in large part due to this alumni support.

GoSTEM is an inter-departmental program at Georgia Tech that includes CETL. GoSTEM is a collaboration between Georgia Tech and the Gwinnett County Public School District to enhance the educational experience of Latino students in Georgia and strengthen the pipeline of these students into post-secondary STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education.

The project's long-term goal is to create a research-supported model for how technical universities, school systems, and philanthropic foundations can partner to promote academic achievement in STEM fields among Hispanic K-12 students. The Go-STEM model will include both programs that foster achievement within a defined cohort of students from one high school/middle school cluster at Gwinnett County Public Schools; and activities open to the broader community. As part of the model we have developed a vertical mentoring chain in which Georgia Tech faculty mentor K-12 teachers, Georgia Tech undergraduate and graduate students mentor and tutor high school students, and high school students mentor and provide support to middle school students. Elementary students might interact with older students all the way up the chain through a variety of different programs. K-12 students from different grades will be able to participate in programs sponsored by Georgia Tech, such as summer camps, research internships, STEM competitions such as FIRST® LEGO ® League, or junior chapters of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). GoSTEM will also promote life-long learning for teachers by sponsoring a variety of professional development opportunities that include courses provided through Georgia's Race to the Top initiative and research internships for teachers coordinated through Georgia Tech's Georgia Internship Fellowship for Teachers (GIFT) program.

In addition to our cluster initiative, the program also includes an array of community-based initiatives aimed at providing information about STEM, college preparation and admission, and Latino cultural and local issues to families, teachers and the broader community.