UTeach Once Again Called A National Model For STEM-Teacher Prep

By randyramirez in Blog on September 17, 2010 at 12:29 pm | 1 Comment

President Obama announced Sept. 15 the launch of Change the Equation, an initiative designed to promote literacy in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) by improving teacher education, increasing student enthusiasm for STEM careers, and involving business leaders and government officials.

The nonprofit’s website gives examples of success in seven programs at every level of education. One of those seven? The UTeach program in UT’s College of Natural Sciences.

“For those who are concerned about U.S. students’ lagging performance in math and science,” the site’s feature on UTeach reads, “the dearth of qualified teachers in these subjects is a major problem. One possible solution is to find and then replicate promising teacher development projects, such as the 13-year-old University of Texas UTeach program.”

Earlier this year, in challenging states to enhance teacher preparation and training, Obama mentioned UTeach as a model program in teacher training.

Across the country, 21 universities have created programs replicating UTeach’s innovative approach, which arms students with both deep knowledge in a subject and a teaching certificate. Ninety-two percent of UTeach graduates have become teachers, and 82 percent are still in the classroom after five years. About 45 percent of UTeach graduates teach in underserved schools.

And where the program leads off, its graduates pick up. UTeach estimates in the past 10 years, graduates of the program have reached nearly 300,000 students.

Other UT alumni are leading the way as well. Distinguished Alumnus and ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, BS ’75, Life Member, serves on Change the Equation’s board of directors. The initiative is led by 100 CEOs, meeting a goal laid out in Obama’s Educate to Innovate campaign of increasing private and philanthropic involvement in STEM education.

ExxonMobil supports UTeach as well as several training academies for teachers and camps and mentoring for students. The company’s programs and those of other Change the Equation member companies will be pushed out in the initiative’s first year to 100 sites across the country where student performance is low and corporate philanthropy is limited.

Find out more about UTeach at UTeach-Institute.org and Change the Equation at ChangetheEquation.org.