The grant, awarded to Doane University, comes from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education within the U.S. Department of Education. It will be used to support the university's PIVOT project — Paraprofessional Intensive Vocational Onramp to Teaching.
Through the project, educators and paraprofessionals will use an online platform called BloomBoard to gain professional credentials while they're working in classrooms. The online platform will be AI-powered, and classes will be offered to help teachers learn how to use AI effectively in K-12 classrooms.
Tim Frey, project director and dean of the College of Education at Doane University, said AI isn't going away any time soon, so he's excited for this opportunity to help educators adapt to the new reality of learning and teaching.
“We're going to take it into whatever workforce and job opportunities there are, but we're going to do it with a liberal arts mindset,” Frey said.
Because the courses will be online, Frey said he anticipates being able to reach educators across Nebraska with the program. There will be classes available for paraprofessionals and future and current teachers.
Doane is now engaging with the education community to learn what types of AI information should be included in the courses. The first classes on BloomBoard will be available in the coming fall semester, Frey said.
“We're going to trust our K-12 partners to tell us what things they need in their schools and for their future teachers,” Frey said.
The grant comes as Nebraska continues to experience a teacher shortage, though less severe than it has been in years past. For the 2025-26 school year, public and nonpublic schools reported a total of 489.70 unfilled positions, down from 669.35 in 2024.
Frey said he sees the project as part of building a long-term pipeline of prepared teachers working in Nebraska.
“We want to build a sustainable pipeline of folks who might be interested in education careers,” Frey said. “Short-term programs seem to be the way that people are engaging in new career exploration, and this is one way for us to try and reach out to them.”
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