Partnership to Recruit New Math Teachers Awarded $255,000

New funding will expand a Cincinnati initiative to recruit talented high-school students to become future teachers in the STEM fields.

The Southwest Center of Excellence STEM Teaching Academy – a proposal awarded $255,000 jointly to the University of Cincinnati and Miami University – will expand on efforts to recruit underrepresented and underserved students, primarily African-American and urban-Appalachian students, in becoming future math teachers. The partnership was one of eight Regents STEM and Foreign Language Academies around the state to be awarded the funding, announced Feb.19 by Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut.

The partnership was first awarded $340,000 from the Ohio Board of Regents last year, as the OBR first launched its plan to develop regional academies to steer underrepresented and underserved high-school students to college to pursue careers in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields. Beginning with an intensive 2007 summer academy that involved stays at UC and Miami, 44 high school seniors began a year-long academy that will end with the achievement of three credit hours of college math, mentoring, college visits and the completion of 10 Saturday academies where students are meeting with admissions staff and learning about college entrance requirements, advising and financial aid. They also received a $1,000 stipend, a free graphing calculator and free college textbook. Both UC and Miami’s colleges of Education and Arts and Sciences are supporting the initiative, which includes partners from Cincinnati Public Schools, the Princeton City Schools, Oak Hills School District and GEARUP – the federally funded partnership that works to help at-risk students pursue college.

The 2008 funding will expand to include 50 students, with outreach to UC and Miami’s regional colleges to recruit students in those regions, and will again begin with the summer academy stays on campus at UC and Miami. The Southwest Center of Excellence Regents STEM Teaching Academy will also recruit five “alumni” from the current 2007-2008 program to serve as mentors and student helpers. The program will schedule an additional three Saturday academies during the academic year, as well as offer Internet forums through Blackboard software, for students to reach out to their peers and instructors about their college and high-school coursework. Students will complete the academy in May 2009.

The OBR awarded a total of $1,917,080 to the eight Regents STEM and Foreign Language Academies. The academies are awarded based on a competitive, two-step review process that is intended to solicit proposals from partnerships of two and four-year public and independent colleges and universities, and encourage collaboration and ongoing interactions between K-12 and higher education.