As President Barack Obama pushes to get more college students to add a teaching degree to their resume, AT&T said it is contributing $500,000 to support the UTeach program. The communications giant said the money will be used to train math and science teachers on five university campuses including the University of California at Berkeley and Irvine, The University of Northern Arizona, Florida State University and the University of Florida. Dr. May Ann Rankin, president and chief executive officer of the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI), said the program will help train a future generation of much needed math and science teachers. "This welcome support from AT&T will help create a new generation of math and science teachers in the United States," Rankin stated."Our nation needs an additional 280,000 math and science teachers by 2015, and the UTeach program is playing a key role in providing those teachers." NMSI has partnered with the UTeach institute to implement programs for recruiting and preparing math and science teachers in universities for the past 3 years. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports job opportunities for teachers are expected to increase by 13% through the end of the decade. |