UTC has received $1.8 million from the state of Tennessee for the UTeaChattanooga program, designed to improve math and science teacher quality and quantity.
The University will receive the funding over the next four years and has committed to invest $2 million over the same period. The UC Foundation has pledged $500,000 to start an endowment to support the program. Volkswagen Group of America has also contributed $1 million to UTC which included funding specifically for STEM education.
UTC was awarded the funding after a nationwide competition. The Tennessee Higher Education Commission and the Tennessee State Department of Education are supporting the initiative through the state’s recently awarded Race to the Top funds.
Most students in the UTeaChattanooga program will earn a bachelor’s degree in a math or science field in addition to licensure to teach in that field within four years. The first two courses in the UTeaChattanooga curriculum will be tuition free for interested math and science majors and in every course in the UTeaChattanooga curriculum, students will get to spend time our partner K-12 schools receiving valuable practice teaching experience.
“UTeaChattanooga takes mathematicians and scientists and trains them to be teachers rather than training educators in math and science. UTeaChattanooga graduates will be highly qualified and therefore much more likely to motivate their students to consider math and science related careers,” said Sandy Watson, associate professor in the Teacher Preparation Academy and co-director of the program.
The successful program was developed at UT Austin in 1997 to combat a critical shortage of secondary math and science teachers in Texas.
“This shortage is in fact a problem across the U.S. and in Tennessee as well. When we do not have well qualified high school math and science teachers, their students often do not experience success in math and science and therefore are not motivated to pursue math and science related careers. This issue has contributed to vastly decreased numbers of U.S. mathematicians and scientists, which could negatively affect our national security,” Watson added.
