Cal Poly in SLO received almost $800,000 in federal grant funding to train 20 new Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math (STEM) teachers who will eventually teach in the Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo areas.
The National Science Foundation grant comes as a follow-up to an earlier grant, which added 33 STEM teachers in three school districts—the Santa Maria-Bonita, Santa Maria Joint Union High, and Lucia Mar school districts. The grants are part of the Robert Noyce Scholarship Program, which encourages college students to pursue STEM-based teaching careers in elementary and secondary schools.
U.S. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) made the announcement on Aug. 28 in a press release.
“This funding is an investment in our schools and our children,” Capps said in the release. “Many students with strong STEM backgrounds who otherwise might not have considered a career in education are now teaching the youth in our local school districts. We need to continue to educate our children in the sciences and mathematics to put them on a path toward success later in life.”
Under the program, college students at Cal Poly fulfill a multi-year teaching requirement at a “high-need” school. They also receive on- and off-campus opportunities for early field experience in teaching and support in being placed in teaching positions upon completion of their credentials.
This article appears in Sep 5-12, 2013.