The UABTeach program at UAB will soon see expansion along with the launch of four new UTeach STEM teacher preparation programs at fully accredited public Alabama colleges and universities.
The Alabama STEM Council will direct an initial $4.5 million legislative appropriation toward the project, which was modeled after UTeach, developed at the University of Texas at Austin in 1997.
The STEM Council also is partnering with the UTeach Institute at The University of Texas at Austin and the Alabama Commission on Higher Education to manage a competitive call for proposal process and provide program implementation support to selected higher education partners.
“Alabama has a decades-long crisis in the shortage of science and math teachers, and I know firsthand how UTeach solves the problem,” said Lee Meadows, executive director of the Alabama STEM Council. “Alabama can’t wait any more for enough STEM teachers to show up for our students. We need proven strategies that recruit undergraduates to STEM teaching, provide them excellent preparation and get enough of them out so that every student has a caring, competent, qualified STEM teacher.”
UTeach teachers average longer classroom careers than graduates of other teacher preparation programs, and nearly 70% of UTeach graduates teach in Title 1 schools, according to an Alabama STEM Council press release.
Qualified institutions will be eligible to receive up to $3 million in funding over five years to recruit and prepare secondary STEM teachers.
“The current challenges across our educational systems are unprecedented, and the need for excellent teachers has never been greater,” said Kimberly Hughes, director of the UTeach Institute.
