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UF News University of Florida

AT&T provides $500,000 for UTeach program to train math, science teachers

January 19, 2012

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The National Math and Science Initiative announced today that AT&T will provide $500,000 to support the highly regarded UTeach program to train math and science teachers at the University of Florida and four other universities: the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at Irvine, University of Northern Arizona and Florida State University.

“AT&T deserves tremendous credit for its foresight in recognizing the growing importance of math and science education,” UF President Bernie Machen said. “If you want to get students interested in those fields, you have to reach them early. This gift is a long-range investment that will help the University of Florida graduate the teachers that are needed to keep our state and our nation economically competitive for years to come.”

UF Teach, modeled after the UTeach program, is the pillar of UF’s science and math education reform strategy. It’s a collaboration between the College of Education and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the goal is to recruit the best math and science majors and prepare them to teach effectively.

Master science and math teachers at UF’s education college induct the students into the community of teachers by showing them the most effective, research-proven teaching methods in the given content areas and exposing them to supervised classroom experiences with schoolchildren beginning in their first semester. The program, in its fourth year, offers education minors for their efforts in hopes the students will teach. Their degrees qualify them for teaching certification in Florida schools.

The first UF Teach class of 41 students enrolled in 2008, and enrollment jumped to 224 last spring. College officials project that by 2015, UF Teach will graduate more than 60 students yearly who will be certified, and highly qualified, to teach middle and high school math and science in Florida schools. By then, they say the number of math and science students in Florida served by UF Teach graduates should top 25,000 and continue to grow exponentially each year.

“This welcome support from AT&T will help create a new generation of math and science teachers in the United States,” said Mary Ann Rankin, CEO of NMSI. “Our nation needs an additional 280,000 math and science teachers by 2015, and the UTeach program is playing a key role in providing those teachers.”

NMSI has partnered with the UTeach Institute to implement the path-breaking program for recruiting and preparing math and science teachers in universities across the country since 2008 and is helping expand the program to 28 universities this fall. Enrollment in UTeach has tripled in the last three years, attracting more than 5,000 math and science majors across the country this fall.

“Demand for the UTeach program continues to grow around the country,” said Rankin. “This proves that more college students will seek careers as math and science teachers if you provide an approach that makes sense. What we must do now is engage more far-sighted corporations like AT&T — as well as foundations, and state governments — to take this proven program to more college students across the nation.”

“AT&T is acutely aware that our country needs more skilled workers in the critical fields of science, technology, engineering and math,” said Marshall Criser III, AT&T Florida president and UF trustee. “All Americans will need to be more STEM proficient to be competitive in the 21st century. We are proud to be supporting UTeach, which is providing the solution and inspiration on these campuses to move our country forward.”

About UTeach: Originated at The University of Texas at Austin in 1997, the UTeach program enables students majoring in math, science, or computer science to receive full teaching certification without adding time or cost to their degrees. Ninety-two percent of UTeach graduates from the UT-Austin program become teachers, and 82 percent are still in the classroom after five years. About 45 percent of the UTeach graduates teach in high-need schools.

The core elements of the UTeach program include:

About AT&T Inc.: AT&T is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates provide AT&T services in the U.S. and around the world that include wireless communications, Wi-FI, high speed internet and voice services. AT&T also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse and AT&T ¦DIRECTV brands as well as business communications services through AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive. In 2010, AT&T again ranked among the 50 Most Admired Companies by Fortune magazine. AT&T is committed to advancing education, strengthening communities and improving lives through its philanthropic initiatives. In 2010, more than $148.2 million was contributed through corporate-, employee- and AT&T Foundation-giving programs.

About NMSI: The National Math and Science Initiative, known as NMSI, was launched in 2007 by top leaders in business, education, and science to reverse the decline in American math and science education. NMSI is dedicated to dramatically impacting the U.S. public school system by multiplying best practices across the country. NMSI currently is replicating two programs nationally that have documented success in math and science education, UTeach and the Advanced Placement Training and Incentive Program, which is increasing the number of high school students taking and passing college-level math and science courses.

Inaugural funding for NMSI was provided by the Exxon Mobil Corporation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. Expansion of the UTeach program is supported by additional funding from the UTeach Institute, Texas Instruments Foundation, the Texas High School Project, the Greater Texas Foundation, the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, the Tennessee Department of Education, Texas Education Agency, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and other private contributions. With funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, NMSI is increasing the impact of the program through an alumni network for UTeach graduates.