Featured Program: FSU-Teach at The Florida State University
October 21, 2010
Once mature, FSU-Teach, a program modeled after UTeach at The Florida State University, is expected to graduate about 70 STEM teachers a year.In 2006, the provost of The Florida State University (FSU) convened a meeting between the university and the State of Florida’s Department of Education, to discuss ways that FSU could increase the quantity and quality of the teachers it produces in critical shortage areas, including mathematics and science. FSU sent a team to Austin to learn about UTeach, and the idea of FSU-Teach was born.
When a request for proposals was issued the following year by the UTeach Institute and the NMSI for universities to replicate UTeach, FSU hit the ground running. Thanks to strong leadership support and a proactive development team, FSU-Teach secured a one million dollar endowment gift from the Helios Education Foundation.
As part of the first cohort of universities selected to replicate UTeach, FSU-Teach unified three separate existing pathways to STEM teacher preparation at FSU, increased the rigor of content courses required for students seeking STEM certification, and eliminated generic education courses in favor of courses specifically targeted to future mathematics and science teachers.
FSU-Teach’s results thus far are impressive. From an initial group of 42 students in Fall 2008, the program has grown to an enrollment of more than 200 in Spring 2010. An additional 100 students are registered this fall. These students are very happy with their experiences. In Spring 2010, 97% of FSU-Teach students enrolled in Step 1 indicated that they were either “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the program, and over 70% of these students are expected to continue on to the next course in the program, Step 2. FSU-Teach expects its first graduates in Spring 2011, and once mature, is on track to graduate upwards of 70 STEM teachers a year. FSU-Teach students are among the most active in the national UTeach community, hosting both local events and working to get the national UTeach student group, WeTEACH, off the ground.
With a sizeable endowment and contiguous space that includes a newly renovated student workroom, classrooms, a lab, and program offices, FSU-Teach is well on its way to becoming an institutionalized and sustainable feature program at FSU.
FSU-Teach is led by co-directors, Ellen Granger, Director of the Office of Science Teaching Activities in Arts & Sciences, and Sherry Southerland Professor in the School of Teacher Education, under the leadership of Deans Joseph Travis in the College of Arts & Sciences and Marcy Driscoll in the College of Education. FSU-Teach’s community partners include local Leon County Schools, as well as Gadsden County Schools, a high-needs, low socioeconomic district near the university.
