University of Arkansas Will Lead Alliance to Improve Science Education in Public Schools

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The National Science Foundation has awarded University of Arkansas researchers Gay Stewart and Bernard Madison a five-year, $7 million grant for the “College Ready In Math and Physics Partnership,” an initiative that creates alliances between university faculty in the science, technology, engineering and math fields and K-12 teachers.

In recent years, world rankings of the quality of science and technology education have shown the United States slipping from near the top to middle of the pack. The initiative proposed by Stewart and Madison will help address those concerns.

Stewart, the principal investigator of the grant, and co-principal investigator Madison will work with their core university partner, the College of Education at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, as well as teachers in 33 school districts in Arkansas and Oklahoma, in a focused effort to prepare students for college-level courses in the sciences.

“This major grant will allow our faculty and their partners to reach across a two-state region and support teachers at every grade level, from kindergarten through high school. Through such a concentrated outreach effort, we hope to help increase retention and graduation rates from high school through college,” said William Schwab, interim dean of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

Other supporting partners in the initiative include the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Physical Society, the College Board, the Mathematical Association of America, Maplesoft, Northwest Arkansas Community College and the Center for Mathematics and Science Education at the university.

Stewart, an associate professor of physics, and Madison, professor of mathematics, both in Fulbright College, are joined on the project by three other co-principal investigators: Shannon Dingman, assistant professor of mathematics at the university; John Jones, dean of the College of Education at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith; and Pete Joenks, assistant principal at Springdale High School.

Stewart said the grant will enable her and Madison to bring together two major initiatives they have led: the Physics Teacher Education Coalition and “Preparing Mathematicians to Educate Teachers,” both funded by the National Science Foundation.

Under Stewart’s leadership, the university was chosen as one of only six in the U.S. to be a primary program institution for the coalition. The goal was to improve primary and secondary physics education in the United States by building strong alliances among various institutions of higher education and the communities they serve.

This new grant will allow her and Madison to continue the groundwork they have laid.

“In the College Ready program, we intend to build learning communities of school and college faculty, help high school students be prepared to succeed in college and make effective learning materials available to students,” said Stewart. “Ultimately, the program should lead to decreases in the number of students who come to college needing remedial classes as well as increases in the number of students who are enrolling in Advanced Placement math and physics courses.”

Madison said he intends to oversee efforts to revise the mathematics program for preparing secondary teachers as well as the master’s degree in secondary mathematics.

“Gay and I will draw on several projects in order to create professional learning communities not only across the state but with national leaders in the sciences as well,” Madison said.

These communities will give teachers access to materials that will allow them to establish ongoing programs within a network of support. The American Physical Society will host these materials, edited by project member John Stewart, on their portal for the National Science Digital Library at http://www.ptec.org.

Madison has worked with the College Board’s mathematical sciences programs for more than 20 years, including serving as national project director of two major NSF-funded initiatives of the Mathematical Association of America to improve undergraduate mathematics instruction. Stewart was co-chair of the recent AP physics curriculum redesign for the College Board’s sciences programs and was a member of the committee working on the College Board Science Standards for College Success.

The College Ready Partnership program, which will begin Jan. 1, 2009, will include several physics and math faculty who will lead workshops and teach content courses for in-service teachers.