President Obama announced on Wednesday a partnership between federal agencies and public universities to train thousands more mathematics and science teachers each year, part of the administration’s effort to make American students more competitive globally in science, technology, engineering, and math.
Leaders of 121 public universities have pledged to increase the total number of science and math teachers they prepare every year to 10,000 by 2015, up from the 7,500 teachers who graduate annually now.
Forty-one institutions, including California’s two university systems and the University of Maryland system, said they would double the number of science and math teachers they trained each year by 2015.
The partnership is part of the Obama administration’s “Educate to Innovate” campaign, a program announced in November that seeks to join government agencies, businesses, and universities in efforts to improve math and science education.
Mr. Obama announced several new public-private partnerships as part of that campaign today.
In a letter to Mr. Obama dated Wednesday, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities said it recognized that colleges could do more to improve the United States’ competitiveness in science, math, and technology.
“Many of our institutions—still too few—have demonstrated that a whole university (colleges of science and education working together) can cast science and mathematics teaching as the critical and noble profession that it is for young people to consider,” the association wrote.
