The Summer Certification Institute in Secondary Mathematics (SCISM) program at Arizona State University is a parallel certification sequence that is enabling 30 upper-level students to take the courses and fieldwork required to become secondary mathematics teachers while they are completing a bachelor's degree in mathematics or engineering. SCISM students complete their education requirements in the senior academic year and the two summers before and after the senior year. They graduate with a bachelor's degree in mathematics or engineering and 15 graduate credits toward the M.Ed.
Two distinctive features of SCISM are an undergraduate teaching practicum and the use of professional learning communities (PLCs). In the practicum, SCISM candidates are mentored in teaching a section of College Algebra in ASU undergraduate classrooms. The candidates participate in teacher professional learning communities that are linked to the practicum. In their PLCs, SCISM candidates dig deeply into the content they are teaching and support one another in developing effective lesson plans and methods of instruction. The PLCs continue into the new teacher induction period, serving as a framework for supporting the teachers during their novitiate as high school math instructors.
SCISM students gain their field experience and student teaching credits in high-need Arizona school districts. They are required to teach mathematics for three years in a high-need district upon completing the SCISM program. CRESMET, ASU's Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology, is sponsoring SCISM in collaboration with the College of Education, the Department of Mathematics, and the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering. SCISM is expanding on a pilot effort that CRESMET launched in 2005 with eight students and start-up funding from the Boeing Company. SCISM draws inspiration from the UTeach model established at the University of Texas at Austin and innovates on the UTeach model by combining a college classroom-teaching model with the use of professional learning communities.
