About SMTI
The Science & Mathematics Teacher Imperative
MAKING A COMMITMENT…
Public university leaders working through the Science and Mathematics Teacher Imperative will catalyze action across sectors—state and federal governments, the business community, the K-12 community, and others to seriously undertake the challenging effort of adequately preparing teachers to teach science and mathematics in the 21st century. A commitment to the teacher imperative will not only link institutions with others that want to produce better science and mathematics teachers, but will unlock A۰P۰L۰U-member universities’ technical resources and key tools to achieve sustainable outcomes on this important issue.
Funding Partners…
The Science and Mathematics Teacher Imperative is supported by grants from:
- Carnegie Corporation of New York
- The National Science Foundation
- In-kind contributions for faculty time by several universities
- A۰P۰L۰U
The Crisis…
Fifty years ago, the launch of Sputnik and the fear that the Soviet Union was outperforming the United States in science and technology, prompted sharply increased U.S. investment in science and mathematics education. Today, the U.S. faces perhaps an even more daunting crisis—a critical deficit in well-qualified science and mathematics teachers. Despite a number of initiatives over the past two decades, progress has been slight in addressing the dire shortage for teachers—clearly insufficient to reverse the downward spiral of science and mathematics education in the U.S.
A DIFFERENT APPROACH…
A۰P۰L۰U’s 218-member institutions and university systems, with their heavy involvement in research and education in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, are ideally positioned to make significant contributions to the critical needs for highly qualified and diverse science and mathematics teachers.
Through the Science and Mathematics Teacher Imperative (SMTI), leaders of A۰P۰L۰U-member institutions commit to:
- Substantially increase the number and diversity of high quality mathematics and science teachers in middle and high schools.
- Identify the immediate and longer term needs for science and math teachers in their states.
- Build partnerships among universities, community colleges, school systems, state government and other stakeholders to address statewide needs for teachers on a sustained basis.
SMTI will provide technical tools and support to produce high quality science and mathematics teachers, including:
Assessing the Need for Teachers
The Needs Assessment project will assist state policymakers and education leaders to rigorously evaluate their states’ needs for middle and high school science and mathematics teachers, and their ability to meet those needs. The project will help states identify best practices in developing and implementing data systems that provide institutions the necessary information to establish numerical goals for science and mathematics teacher production and effectiveness.
Identifying Leading Approaches
The Analytic Framework will be a user-friendly online database that summarizes major components of leading practices of science and mathematics teacher preparation programs across the country. The portal will contain information about promising practices in science and mathematics teacher recruitment, preparation, mentoring and development across universities. It will be an important resource for institutions attempting to benchmark or launch new effort.
