Minnesota / Science Teaching Getting a Boost: Hamline University Gets $2.3 Million for School Training

By Paul Tosto, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Feb. 12–A science education can open doors to some of the best careers in Minnesota, and students who do well in the sciences can expect to be in high demand.

But for as well as Minnesota students score on national science exams, officials say the state needs to do more to improve instruction and get more teachers specializing in it. To that end, Hamline University today will announce it has received a $2.3 million grant from the state Department of Education to sharpen science teaching.

The Minnesota Science Teachers Education Project will run 10 regionally focused summer institutes for up to 1,000 kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers throughout the state, offering courses in science and teaching methods. The grant will also pay for 100 teachers to become fully licensed to teach high-school chemistry or physics.

Hamline’s award is the largest of more than $4 million in grants the state will announce today as part of an effort to raise the profile of math and science in state classrooms. The Hamline money will finance three years of summer institutes, teaching 325 teachers each year at sites around the state.

“We need to support science instruction, especially in elementary school,” said Lee Schmitt, director of the science teachers project at Hamline. The training, he added, will be tied to Minnesota’s science standards, which students statewide will be tested on for the first time next school year.

“There’s been a lot of quality professional development,” said Schmitt. “The problem is, it has not been consistent or convenient.”

Minnesota’s has been in an odd position for years. While state students score at or near the top of national science exams compared to other states, they are below average when it comes to the number of high-level math or science classes they take.

A study released in the fall by the Education Trust, a national research group, found only 16 percent of Minnesota eighth-graders taking algebra, compared to 35 percent in the five top-performing states.

Observers say part of that might be the trouble schools and districts have finding people to teach. Nearly 70 percent of Minnesota superintendents responding to an Education Department survey in 2005 said it was difficult or very difficult to fill science teaching positions. Nearly 60 percent said the same for math.

It can be especially difficult finding physics and chemistry teachers, a problem that may worsen with expected retirements in coming years, said Marlene Schoeneck, who teaches junior-high and high school science at Parkers Prairie High School.

The summer institutes will let teachers polish their craft without pulling them out of their regular classrooms. The courses also will be spread around the state, a big plus for rural teachers who might otherwise face a long drive for a university course.

Most teachers want to be highly qualified, said Schoeneck, who also is president of the Minnesota Science Teachers Association. “This is just giving teachers more options, some sane options.”

Paul Tosto covers higher education and can be reached at ptosto@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2119.

Thinking Science

Hamline’s $2.3 million grant is the largest of several through the state’s Mathematics and Science Partnerships program, which aims to improve achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Other grants announced today include:

–American Indian Science and Engineering Society, $627,430 for the Teaching Relevant Inquiry-Based Environmental Science program

–St. Cloud Area Schools, $618,714 for the St. Cloud Partnership in Mathematics Program

–Augsburg College, $441,237 for a Conceptual Mathematics Institute 2 for K-8 Teachers

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Copyright (c) 2007, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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