The University of Texas, Austin proposes a planning grant to bring its Computer Science Department and UTeach program together with the goal of creating UTeach-CS. UTeach started at The University of Texas as a new way to prepare secondary science, math and computer science teachers. It is a unique collaboration between the Colleges of Natural Sciences and Education, supporting undergraduates who want to teach, college graduates who want to return for certification, new teachers looking for a supportive community, and experienced teachers who want an advanced degree. It has proven to be so effective that it is now being replicated at universities across the United States. Yet few Computer Science students participate. This planning grant will do preliminary work to establish a UTeach-CS program at the UT-Austin and to help replicate it at other universities. In particular, the outcomes include (1) an understanding of how to better market UTeach and the teaching profession to CS students and IT professionals, (2) the development of a UTCS Bachelor?s degree plan that better accommodates the UTeach certificate, (3) an understanding of the prospects and challenges of replicating our UTeach-CS program to replication sites within Texas, (4) the exploration of CS curricula for training math and science students who are not CS majors and for training high school teachers who are not certified to teach CS, and (5) a plan for growing UTeach-CS beyond this first year and for replicating it to other institutions supported by the UTeach Institute. This effort is in alignment with the CISE CS/10K goal of dramatically increasing the number of US high school computer science teachers by the year 2015.
HIGHLIGHTS UTeach—CS aligns computer science teaching certification with the UTeach model, which currently targets mathematics and science pre-service teachers at the University of Texas at Austin. UTeach is a collaborative partnership between the College of Natural Sciences and the College of Education. Field experiences are integrated early and throughout the program. Master teachers coordinate relevant field experiences to coincide with coursework. Degree plans are structured so that in 4 years a BS in Computer Science degree is earned alongside teaching certification. Pedagogical coursework focuses on inquiry-based learning, project-based instruction, and is situated in the content discipline. Pre-service teachers are assessed through a portfolio process that is peer-reviewed by established teachers in the field. RESULTS In its initial year, UTeach—CS has made several strides toward developing a sustained certification program for computer science teachers. Dedicated, rigorous degree plans have been constructed to allow CS certification with Computer Science or Mathematics BS degrees. The initial recruitment efforts led to 10 students enrolling in the program for the Fall 2010 semester, with over 20 total new participants in the first two years. Previously, UT had only certified 7 CS teachers in 14 years. Paid student internships have been created for UTeach—CS students to experience actual high school CS classrooms. Curricular supplementation for pre-existing UTeach coursework has been developed. Because all UTeach pedagogy courses are situated in content areas, computer science certifiers will have more options for exploring teaching in their field of study. Support for student retention has been implemented within the CS department as well as integrated with pre-existing resources, such as MASTT, the local UTeach student organization. INTELLECTUAL MERIT In spite of the growing demand for skilled workers in the IT and Computing industries, fewer than 27% students graduate high school with "rigorous" computing coursework. With few teachers and even fewer teacher certification programs to adequately train new CS teachers, expectations for reversing this trend are poor. We have demonstrated that the UTeach model is successful in attracting CS majors to pursue Texas Computer Science teacher certification. BROADER IMPACT Given the lack of qualified teachers, a majority of high schools do not offer computer science coursework. Not surprisingly, the lion's share of these schools lie in poor urban and rural districts. UTeach graduates are trained and encouraged to work in these high-needs areas.
