Teaching and Professional Learning

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Some colleges and universities are using similar design elements to create unconventional teacher preparation programs aimed at undergraduate math and science majors—students unlikely to enroll in standard teacher preparation programs and attracted to the intellectual rigor and challenge of mathematics and science. At the University of Texas at Austin, for example, the UTeach Natural Sciences program was established by the dean of the College of Natural Sciences, who forged partnerships with the university’s College of Education and College of Liberal Arts and with the Austin Independent School District. UTeach vigorously recruits math and science majors to become teachers, offering them intensive clinical preparation for the challenges of secondary school teaching in science, math, computer science, and engineering. Students may enter UTeach at multiple points in their undergraduate schooling and are usually able to complete the requirements for certification by the time they graduate. UTeach also offers post-baccalaureate programs in math and science education for college graduates and already certified teachers. The program has an ambitious replication agenda, and versions of the model are now operating in 13 universities around the country⁶¹.

To lead a revolution in math and science education, teachers themselves need opportunities to experience powerful math and science learning

Collectively, innovative programs such as these are beginning to push other teacher preparation programs to reconsider the way they work and their lack of connection with school system needs. Commission member Susanna Loeb and Pam Grossman have argued that the rapid growth of alternative-route programs has “demonstrated the need for institutions that prepare teachers to be more responsive to the immediate needs of school districts. Alternative routes developed, in large part, because existing institutions could not respond quickly enough to projected and actual teacher shortages, especially in high-need areas⁶².”

Within the bounds of more conventional teacher preparation, some colleges and universities are beginning to link their programming with school system needs in mathematics and science. For example, the University of Washington has established two post-baccalaureate fellowship programs—the Noyce Fellowship and the Lenore Annenberg Teaching Fellowship—which offer aspiring math and science teachers a year of academic and clinical preparation, followed by mentoring and support during their first years of teaching in high-needs local schools. The Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, a research center within the university’s College of Education, operates several projects that involve teacher candidates, K-12 practitioners, and faculty members (in education, and also in science and mathematics) in studying the development of teacher skill and other research questions.

In another example, the Long Beach, California, school district has become deeply involved in shaping the credentialing programs at California State University Long Beach. The district’s curriculum specialists teach in CSU’s program and have helped to develop a program in which coursework and clinical experience are well integrated. The Long Beach district also offers early employment contracts to prospective science and math teachers prepared through the CSU program. The quality of teacher preparation is an issue, but so is the role of math and science courses in undergraduate education generally, and especially for teacher candidates. Undergraduates who plan to become elementary school teachers and who are not majoring in science, mathematics, or engineering tend to study very little math or science, with few or no courses required beyond an institution’s general education requirements. Overall mathematics preparation of elementary school teachers falls below goals outlined in 2001 by the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (CBMS), which recommends at least nine semester hours, equivalent to three courses, of undergraduate study⁶³. Scant preparation puts elementary school teachers and their students at a severe disadvantage, given the importance of math achievement in state accountability systems. For the middle grades, CBMS recommends that mathematics be taught by specialists with at least 21 semester hours in mathematics, including at least 12 semester hours on fundamental ideas of mathematics appropriate for middle grades students. At least one-third of the nation’s eighth graders are being taught by teachers who have not met these advisory goals⁶⁴.

According to a 2008 study by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), few colleges are giving attention to this issue—although change is possible. One teacher preparation program, at the University of Georgia at Athens, requires very substantial mathematics preparation for aspiring elementary grades math teachers: five semesters, three in math content, taught within the university’s mathematics department, and two in math teaching methods, taught within the school of education⁶⁵. Named an “exemplary program” in the NCTQ report, it may well point the way for other programs. But raising standards in these ways is likely to be effective only if higher education raises standards for all undergraduate learning in mathematics and science. The core preparation in math and science needed by teachers is also needed for a wide range of professions in the new economy. The pool of students who are academically well-prepared in math and science from which teacher candidates can be recruited must be expanded. In addition, further research is needed on the impact on pupil achievement of the math and science preparation of their teachers.