A $2.4 million grant-funded program will increase the number of undergraduate math, science and computer science majors obtaining teaching certification and will enhance UNT's efforts to address a national shortage of teachers qualified to teach those subjects. Teach North Texas, a collaborative effort between the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Education, builds on UNT's already strong support of secondary education in the North Texas region through a partnership with the Fort Worth ISD.
The program, modeled after the UTeach program at the University of Texas at Austin, includes the opportunity for students to explore the teaching profession in two free one-hour courses that can be taken as early as their freshman year. Once in the program, students take courses in the professional development sequence that emphasize field experiences, teaching strategies and concepts related specifically to the subjects they will teach. Students will interact with master teachers, experienced high school teachers hired by UNT to teach courses, supervise field work and offer mentorship and real-world advice.
"During the 2006-07 academic year, about 1,200 students completed our certification programs for teachers, counselors or other leadership roles in schools. But this powerful new partnership will allow us to do more than ever before to supply our schools with highly qualified math and science teachers," President Gretchen M. Bataille said at the March announcement of the new program. As a result of Teach North Texas, UNT expects to graduate 60 students a year with bachelor's degrees in math, science or computer science with teacher certification.
UNT is one of 13 universities nationwide selected to replicate the UTeach program. Grants from the Greater Texas Foundation, UTeach Institute and the National Mathematics and Science Initiative will partially fund the program.
Teach North Texas will be directed by John Quintanilla, associate professor of mathematics, and Mary Harris, Meadows Chair for Excellence in Education.
"With Teach North Texas, future math and science teachers will be prepared for their profession with course work that is guided by current research and is specifically tailored for their field of interest," Quintanilla says. "We think that our students will appreciate the connections between what they learn in Teach North Texas and the multiple field experiences they'll have practicing their teaching skills in public schools."
One of the major aims of the program is for the students to earn degrees in science, math or computer science and acquire teaching certification in four years. Because that's a big career decision, the program will offer two free one-credit-hour courses to help students decide if they really want to pursue a teaching path.
Quintanilla and Harris are confident that dozens of students a year will say yes.
If Teach North Texas and other UNT teacher-training programs result in hundreds of career teachers who might otherwise have bolted for a cushy corporate job or perhaps never gone into teaching in the first place, the positive impact on the students they teach—and, by extension, the positive impact on the rest of us—could be enormous.
"I feel," Harris says, "as if this enables UNT to fulfill its obligation to society."