Allegheny College seeks funding for a three-year program: Project A-Step: Reformulating Teacher Preparation in Mathematics and Science. The project, developed with a planning grant from NSF and the Exxon Foundation, will redesign the teacher preparation programs in mathematics and science at Allegheny and will make discipline-specific preservice education a central focus of the entire college. The department of education has already been restructured, and all positions are or will be filled by faculty with dual appointments in mathematics or science departments. There is a structure in place, The Schools Partnership, which ties the college to six school districts. The Partnership will be involved in project activities with faculty and students through joint programs, institutes, workshops, student mentoring, student field-experiences, and program development in Project A-Step. A component of the Partnership is an electronic computer network which will provide teachers, students, faculty members access to each other and to the college's computer as well as to the Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center. The Allegheny faculty has formed a Task Force on teaching to develop programs in mathematics and science education for preservice teachers which have as the basic premise a strong command of the discipline, knowledge of the connections to related disciplines, and discipline specific pedagogy. The faculty and top administration are committed to make Allegheny a model for small liberal colleges that prepare teachers in mathematics and science. Allegheny has received funding for related components of the project from the Amoco Foundation, the Vira Heinz Endowment, the Pew Charitable Trusts; and the Knight Foundation. In addition, Allegheny's cost share will be 62% of the NSF total costs.
