Committed to ensuring the provision of high quality mathematics and science education to all students in this majority-Hispanic community, the El Paso Partnership for Excellence in Teacher Preparation represents a major deviation from the historic paradigm of teacher education. The Partnership is an integral part of the El Paso Collaborative for Academic Excellence and the El Paso Urban Systemic Initiative and joins the Colleges of Science and Education at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), the El Paso Community College, and three major public school districts in El Paso County in a fundamental transformation of teacher preparation that is grounded in and contributes to systemic reform in K-12 education. The Partnership, which will be led by Arturo Pacheco, Dean of UTEP's College of Education, and John R. Bristol, Interim Dean of the College of Science, will sponsor activities contributing to four major goals: (1) to recruit more students into mathematics and science teacher preparation, particularly more minority students, and provide support and financial incentives for those planning to become teachers; (2) revise and enhance curriculum at both the lower- and upper-division levels so that prospective teacher achieve high levels of both content knowledge and pedagogical skills; (3) to enhance the teaching skills of mathematics, science, and teacher education faculty so that they can both better impart content knowledge and model exemplary pedagogical behaviors; and (4) to provide support for new mathematics and science teachers as they enter their profession.
