Grant for Temple to train teachers

Temple University will receive a $2.4 million grant, one of 12 in the nation, to encourage and prepare more of its math and science majors to teach at the middle and high school level.

The money comes from the recently formed National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI), based in Dallas, which has been charged with funding the replication of successful programs to improve math and science education in the United States.

The effort follows a 2005 national report that estimated that in 1999 and 2000, more than two-thirds of students in some grades were taught some math and science courses by educators who had not majored in those subjects or had no certification in them. The report, "Rising Above the Gathering Storm," by the National Academies - considered the country's leading advisory group on science and technology - found that students' low performance in math and science was hindering the country's competitiveness in the world.

While the federal No Child Left Behind law has mandated subject certification for teachers at the secondary level, many districts, including Philadelphia, still struggle to find enough qualified candidates.

"This is trying to fundamentally change the way that math and science teachers are prepared," said Hai-Lung Dai, dean of Temple's College of Science and Technology. "In the United States for a long, long time, the education philosophy emphasized how to teach and less on what to teach. . . . Now, we just have to find a balance."

The new Temple effort will be based on a 10-year-old program at the University of Texas at Austin, which exponentially increased the number of math and science graduates who became teachers. Last spring, it graduated 77, compared with fewer than 10 the year before the program started, according to NMSI officials.

Only 40 or 50 of Temple's 3,100 math and science majors are planning to become teachers, said Kent McGuire, dean of the College of Education. They're doing so through a five-year program that graduates them with degrees in both teaching and their subject area.

The university hopes the new program will add 25 students in the first year, McGuire said.

"Five years from now, if we have 100 or 150 or 200 in the program, that would be huge," he said. "This will have worked if we are able to double or triple our current enrollments."