The center is significantly strengthening and expanding the impact of faculty development across the ATE Program and stimulating program improvement in technician education by adapting and implementing innovative strategies and using Web 2.0 technologies to: (1) expand the services and increase use of www.TeachingTechnicians.org; (2) scale up peer mentoring and technical assistance to affect program improvement in technician education; (3) identify and broadly disseminate proven and promising strategies for program improvement, with a specific focus on broadening participation of underrepresented groups; and, (4) stimulate the use of evaluation tools to identify and sustain success and help foster a culture of evaluation in the ATE program. The center is initiating a sustainable process for transforming implicit know-how from mature ATE Centers and projects into explicit knowledge and tools to improve technician education, in part, through the adaptation of a successful business model developed by the National Dropout Prevention Center, Clemson University. The adaptations are linking educators to advice and evidence-based "ATE Solutions" to move ATE forward and minimize duplication of effort in technician education.
