TI Foundation executive director Ann Pomykal with University of North Texas administrators and students as they accept a $1 million challenge grant. The funds will help grow UNT's UTeach program as well as one at UT Dallas that the TIF has supported from the beginning.

The National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) recently awarded $12 million in challenge grants to endow the highly successful UTeach programs at 12 American universities, including two supported by the Texas Instruments Foundation.

NMSI awarded $1 million to each of 12 universities that have raised matching funds and met performance benchmarks for implementing the UTeach program to recruit and train college students to become math and science teachers.

"We're proud to support UTeach, which is making a real difference in addressing the critical shortage of math and science teachers in our schools," said Ann Pomykal, Texas Instruments Foundation executive director. "The Texas Instruments Foundation has been involved from the beginning with the North Texas universities in this program, and we're glad to see the matching grants that extend our investments for even greater results in the future."

The TI Foundation has supported two universities receiving the NMSI awards, the University of North Texas (UNT) and the University of Texas at Dallas, with grants to expand existing UTeach centers.

The NMSI grants were announced at a special event at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas to spotlight the impact of the UTeach program on education in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where three major universities are implementing the program: UNT, the University of Texas at Arlington and UT Dallas. UNT and UT Dallas were in the first group of UTeach programs in 2008, making them eligible for the $1 million matching grants. The North Texas programs are expected to produce approximately 800 math and science teachers in the next five years, providing a needed infusion of expertise in math and science for area schools and benefiting nearly half a million students.

The other grant recipient universities are Florida State University; Louisiana State University; Northern Arizona University; Temple University; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, Irvine; the University of Colorado at Boulder; the University of Florida; the University of Houston; and Western Kentucky University.

"These grants will ensure that these universities can continue producing the math and science teachers of tomorrow," said NMSI CEO Sara Martinez Tucker. "Our country needs well-prepared teachers who can spark the imagination of our students and equip them for the challenges of tomorrow. No program is more effective at that preparation than UTeach."

Originated at the University of Texas at Austin in 1997, the UTeach program enables students majoring in math, science or computer science to receive full teaching certification without adding time or cost to their degrees. Ninety-two percent of UTeach graduates from the UT-Austin program become teachers, and 82 percent are still in the classroom after five years. Approximately half teach in high-needs schools.

NMSI, in partnership with the UTeach Institute, has expanded the teacher preparation program nationwide since 2008. The program is currently being implemented at 34 universities, including the original UT-Austin site. As a result of a recent $21.25 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, NMSI will be able to expand the program to 10 Tier One research universities this year. More than 6,000 students are currently enrolled in the UTeach program. That enrollment is expected to double over the next five years.

The President's Council on Science and Technology (PCAST) has estimated that the U.S. will need 100,000 additional teachers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by 2020. With the recent HHMI grant, UTeach will be able to produce more than 17,800 math and science teachers by 2022, providing a significant share of the national goal.

The UTeach programs in North Texas have experienced rapid growth in recent years:

• UTeach Dallas at UTD has grown from 24 students the first semester to its current 350 students, a 1,350 percent increase. Recent graduates are all employed in school systems or science learning centers or have gone on to graduate school. The 100-plus graduates expected through 2014 could potentially benefit about 79,000 middle and high school students by 2019.
• UNT's Teach North Texas enrollment has experienced similar growth, with 324 students currently enrolled. Program graduates are teaching secondary math or secondary science in North Texas schools, many in the Fort Worth, Mid-Cities and Denton areas as well as in Dallas. It is expected that 100 students will have graduated from the UNT program by next year, providing an infusion of teachers with deep content knowledge in math and science for the area.
• UT Arlington's UTeach program was launched in 2010 with 90 freshmen and has proved to be phenomenally successful, growing to 361 students last fall. The first UTeach Arlington graduates will receive their diplomas in May 2014. Approximately 50 students are on track to be in the inaugural UTeach Arlington graduating class.

There are eight UTeach sites in Texas, including the original UT-Austin program. Those programs are expected to produce 5,796 graduates by 2020. It is projected that graduates of these programs will teach approximately 2 million secondary students by 2020.