UC Hosts Effort to Improve Diversity Among High-Demand Teachers

The University of Cincinnati’s College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH) welcomes 44 high-school students this week for their second stay on a college campus this summer. The $255,000 Ohio Board of Regents-funded Southwest Center of Excellence STEM Teaching Academy – one of eight OBR-funded partnerships around the state to create STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and foreign language academies – launches a week of classes at UC after students spent a week at Miami University in June. The students moved into UC’s Daniels Hall on Aug. 3.

The partnership, which includes UC, Miami University, Cincinnati Public Schools and the Princeton City Schools, is dedicated to recruiting underrepresented students, primarily African-American and urban-Appalachian students, into becoming future math teachers.

Program director Shelly Harkness, UC assistant professor of teacher education, says that this week, the students will spend the morning in lecture settings, break for lunch and then divide into small groups in the afternoon to build teamwork at tackling math challenges as well as to build a peer support system that can enhance their future goals toward the STEM professions.

This is the second year for the Southwest Center of Excellence STEM Teaching Academy, which provides three college credit-hours from a pre-calculus course, a top-of-the-line graphing calculator, a free college textbook and an $800 stipend as students complete the program. All 44 students who took part in the first academy last year successfully completed the program.

In addition to their stays at UC and Miami this summer, the students in the current teaching academy also took part in two Saturday sessions at Princeton High School. Future Saturday sessions at UC this fall will educate students about financial aid for college as well as prepare them for the ACT and SAT.

The partnership is supported by the colleges of education and arts and sciences at both UC and Miami universities, the federally funded

GEARUP partnership

to help at-risk students prepare for college, and such school districts as Cincinnati Public, Princeton City and Oak Hills. Students will complete the academy in November 2008.

The State of Ohio is emphasizing and supporting partnerships to build expertise in the high-demand STEM and STEM education fields to build on Ohio’s position in the global economy. Ohio Governor Ted Strickland and the Ohio General Assembly have invested more than $250 million through collaborative programs in higher education, particularly in the STEM fields.