Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for two-year colleges, in cooperation with the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), is conducting a three-year multi-disciplinary, nationwide mentoring project to expand and enhance community college teacher preparation programs for future K-12 science and mathematics teachers, and to identify "best practices" within these programs. The project employs the same conceptual and implementation format used by Phi Theta Kappa in its recent NSF/DUE/ATE-supported projects, Preparing Tomorrow's Science & Mathematics Teachers: The Community College Response; and Improving Science & Technology Education at Community Colleges: Rounds I & II. A set of proven mentoring activities is being used to share the knowledge base, experience, practices and materials achieved by six exemplary community college teacher preparation programs with 18 competitively-selected community colleges. These exemplary practices and materials also are being disseminated widely to other community, technical, and junior colleges nationwide. The 18 selected community colleges each work with one of six two-member mentoring teams. The six community colleges are Green River Community College, WA; William Rainey Harper College, IL; Tulsa Community College, OK; Cerritos College, CA; J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, VA; and Delaware Technical & Community College, DE. Mentors represent disciplines of mathematics, chemistry, biology, physics and education. Project activities include: national competition to select 18 colleges; two National Teacher Preparation Conferences, at which six teams of mentors, from two and four-year colleges, work with assigned four-member college teams to develop action plans; mentor services, including site visits over a one year period; networking newsletter available electronically and in print; case study monograph for distribution to presidents, academic deans, education chairs and STEM chairs; a Best Practices Competition; a Best Practices Conference to recognize and share "best practices" in mathematics and science teacher preparation programs at two-year colleges; Best Practices Conference proceedings and recommendations report; and a broad range of other dissemination activities through Phi Theta Kappa and AACC websites, conferences, and publications.
