GW-UTeach Partnership to Prepare STEM Majors to Become Teachers

WASHINGTON (March 3, 2015)—The George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GSEHD) and Columbian College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS) announced Tuesday that GW was selected by the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) to join a national network of universities in the UTeach science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teacher preparation program. GW received a $1.45 million grant to implement the program.

 

“The addition of our own UTeach program is representative of our continued focus on addressing pressing needs in education, including the need for a greater number of qualified STEM teachers,” said Michael Feuer, dean of GSEHD. “The new program is an opportunity for GW students studying STEM subjects to become teachers, as it enables them to receive both a degree in their major and teaching certification at no additional time or cost.” 

 

Beginning in fall 2015, the UTeach program will be offered to students at GW under the moniker GWTeach. GW students participating in the program will take classes in their major along with UTeach teaching certification courses. 

 

“NMSI is committed to building a pipeline of skilled students and teachers to meet the United States’ need for a STEM-capable workforce,” said Sara Martinez Tucker, CEO of NMSI. “The UTeach Expansion Program is a proven way to ensure that teachers are equipped with the STEM content knowledge and instructional expertise needed to be effective in the classroom.” 

 

NMSI was awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant in 2013 to support expansion of the UTeach program, first developed in 1997 at The University of Texas at Austin, to 10 research universities. The first five of those schools were announced in early 2014 based on a competitive proposal process. GW joins Louisiana Tech University; University of Massachusetts Boston; University of Nevada, Reno; and West Virginia University as the program’s newest participants. The national UTeach network now includes 44 universities across 21 states and the District of Columbia. Collectively, the UTeach programs at these universities are expected to produce an estimated 8,300 secondary math and science teachers who will teach a projected 4.8 million students by 2020. 

 

The Graduate School of Education and Human Development at the George Washington University is a community of learners who strive to bring the best scholarship to bear on the improvement of policy and practice at all levels of education and to prepare leaders for a rapidly changing world. Located at the hub of local, national and global forces that are shaping the 21st century, the school plays a special role in the complex intersection of research, policy and practice, and is committed to equity, social justice, innovation and the civic good.