NT earns millions for education

By: Elizabeth Knighten

Posted: 3/5/08

NT received a life sized check for $2.4 million on Friday morning for the new Teach North Texas program.

NT administration and guests flooded the Diamond Eagle Suite of the University Union as President Gretchen Bataille opened a press conference for Teach North Texas, a program that is an extension of UTeach that was started at the University of Texas in Austin.

Members of Greater Texas Foundation and the ExxonMobil Foundation presented Bataille with the check. Audience members included NT administration, U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess and the Denton Mayor Perry McNeill.

The UTeach program was started to help students in the fields of math, science and computer science and helps them use that knowledge as future educators.

"The task I was given today was to talk about three things," said Wynn Rosser of the Greater Texas Foundation. "Why math and science education is an issue for the Greater Texas Foundation, why UTeach is one of the strategies we were interested in, and why the University of North Texas from our perspective at the Greater Texas Foundation,"

Rosser said it's common knowledge now that the U.S. needs to do something about its math and science education.

"We've done extensive research and listen to experts and chose math and science as the first large scale focus initiative of our foundation," Rosser said.

He pointed out from his research that students who had good communication with their teachers and had engaging educators, did better on average than those who did not.

"The more the teacher knows about the topic they're teaching, the better their students will do," he said.

He said that there are four UTeach sites in the state of Texas and 12 around the country.

The Greater Texas Foundation, he said, chose NT because of its exceptional leadership, its commitment to streamline its math and science teacher certification, its strong partnership with Fort Worth ISD and its commitment to honor students who choose to teach.

"We believe in the importance of individual teachers," he said.

Rena Pederson of the National Math and Science Initiative said it is well documented that the U.S. is facing a serious competitive threat because of the continuing decline in math and science education.

"The beauty of the UTeach program is that it allows students to graduate in four years with both teacher certification and a bachelor's degree in math or science," she said.

The results of the program show that 90 percent of students go on to teach math or science immediately and 80 percent are still teaching after four years of graduating, she said.

"Our congratulations go out to UNT for stepping up to this national challenge, for putting together a superb, solid proposal that earned them this grant," Pederson said.

Fifty universities applied for the UTeach program but only 13 were given a grant.

She said NT had the capacity to train large numbers of math and science teachers and support them.

Gerald McElvy, president of the ExxonMobil Foundation, said ExxonMobil has been involved with supporting educational programs like Teach North Texas for many years across the U.S.

"Most of us wouldn't be here if it wasn't for one or two or three teachers who made it possible for us to believe in ourselves and that really is what this is all about," said Bataille, "and it is what we are going to do here as we launch TNT and we produce these incredible teachers who will go out and make a huge difference, first in Ft. Worth and then the whole country."

Contacts:

1) Rena Pederson (214) 665-2523

2) Dr. Malon Southerland (979) 776-7597

3) Dr. Gretchen Bataille (940) 565-2026

4) Wynn Rosser-Executive Director, Greater Texas Foundation (979) 776-7597

5) Gerald McElvy (212) 627-4140 (This is the number I found online)

6) Congressman Michael Burgess (817) 531-8454 (Ft. Worth, Texas Number) / (972) 434-9700 (Lewisville, Texas Number) / (202) 225-7772 (Washington D.C. Number)