This project is supporting two cohorts of outstanding mathematics and science teachers in the San Francisco Bay Area to become Master Teachers. The carefully organized structure of professional and leadership development activities is supporting a total of 30 teachers though a variety of experiences, including becoming a Teacher-in-Residence at UC Berkeley where the Master Teacher Fellows can take advanced courses in their discipline and engage in research on campus in mathematics, science or education. The project is building on the growing program that Cal Teach has created for teacher education of science, engineering and mathematics students at Berkeley, and on the strong partnerships that have been established with local school districts and with local research institutions. The Math for America-Berkeley (MfA-Berkeley) Program, along with Cal Teach, engages faculty from the STEM content areas as well as from the Graduate School of Education. This interdisciplinary approach to teacher preparation and professional support has been shown to be critical in the context of training secondary mathematics and science teachers for our nation's urban schools, where high quality teachers are severely lacking. The professional development, research, educational and leadership opportunities available within the program provide a unique avenue to develop a cadre of true Master Teachers who can lead the next generation of learning in the critical areas of mathematics and science.
The program has a focus on teaching in urban schools that are often under-served, and reinforces the beliefs that every student has (1) the capacity to learn both introductory and advanced mathematics and science, (2) the right to a quality education that supports their learning, and (3) the need for literacy in mathematics, science and technology so that they have access to every opportunity that society can provide.
