UF joins $5.9 million effort to prepare science and mathematics teachers for today's classroom
GAINESVILLE, Fla.— To stem the crisis in mathematics and science
education in America’s schools, the University of Florida is teaming up
with two other top Florida universities in a historic,
multi-million-dollar effort to prepare K-12 teachers for the 21st
Century classroom.
UF’s College of Education is one of the partners in a statewide effort,
funded by a $5.9 million grant from the Florida Department of
Education, to develop professional development programs for Florida
science and mathematics teachers, many of whom are teaching
out-of-field due to a statewide shortage of mathematics and science
educators.
Dubbed Florida PROMiSE (short for Partnership to Rejuvenate and
Optimize Mathematics and Science Education), the grant is administrated
by the David. C. Anchin Center at the University of South Florida, and
represents the first major mathematics and science education effort
undertaken jointly by USF, Florida State University and the University
of Florida.
“Florida PROMiSE represents an unprecedented statewide effort to
enhance teacher quality and student preparation in mathematics and
science,” said Professor Tom Dana, director of the School of Teaching
and Learning and coordinator of the PROMiSE program at UF’s College of
Education.
The effort comes against a backdrop of crisis in science and math
classrooms in Florida, and in the nation as a whole. Historically a
leader in technological and industrial innovation, the United States is
no longer producing mathematics and science graduates at the same rates
the country maintained in the 20th Century. Meanwhile, emerging powers
such as China and India are sending more students to graduate school in
the same field. The result is a looming shortage of engineers,
scientists and mathematicians for America’s technology-dependent
economy.
Fewer trained scientists means fewer science teachers. As demand for
home-grown scientists and researchers has gone up, the flow of science
and mathematics graduates into the K-12 educational system has slowed
to a trickle. Many of the people currently teaching science in K-12
classrooms hold degrees in other fields.
The Florida PROMiSE grant comes as UF begins a renaissance in science
and mathematics education. In November, UF’s College of Education
secured $3.4 million in grants from the National Math and Science
Initiative and the Helios Education Foundation to establish
FloridaTeach, a new teacher education program that represents a
radically different approach to recruiting science and mathematics
teachers. Modeled on the UTeach program at the University of
Texas-Austin, the program will recruit science and technology majors at
all levels of college, and induct them into the community of teachers
by giving them classroom experiences beginning in the first semester in
the program.
Through Florida PROMiSE, the three partner universities will work with
four of Florida’s largest school districts (Miami-Dade, Hillsborough,
Duval and Seminole), the Florida Virtual School, various
multi-county educational consortia and the private firm Horizon
Research, Inc. to develop professional development training that will
help all science and mathematics educators meet the state’s new,
tougher standards for mathematics and science. Multi-county groups
participating in the project include the Heartland Educational
Consortium, the Northeast Florida Educational Consortium and the
Panhandle Area Educational Consortium.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for the universities to work together
with school districts to enhance the students’ access and opportunity
to learn mathematics and science,” said Gladis Kersaint, the USF
associate professor of mathematics and senior research associate in the
Anchin Center who is the principal investigator of the grant award.
Florida PROMiSE will include a statewide public awareness campaign to
make sure that Florida taxpayers will be fully aware of the new
standards and why they are needed.
For more information, go to:http://flpromise.org.
