Under the “California Teach” program announced on May 31 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and UC officials, the University of California system will quadruple its annual production of credentialed science and mathematics teachers, from 250 per year to 1,000 a year, by 2010. This initiative is the largest of its kind in the nation.

Undergraduate students will be able to achieve, in four years of study, a bachelor’s degree in science, mathematics, or engineering and the preparation to enable them to become a secondary school science or mathematics teacher. The California State University system will help by expanding its own preparation programs for science and mathematics teachers.

The governor, who asked UC and CSU to develop this initiative in his 2004 “compact” with the two systems, pledged $1 million in the May revision to his 2005-06 state budget proposal to support the program’s first phase.

At UCSB, where teacher training has long been an important part of the curriculum, Executive Vice Chancellor Gene Lucas is assembling people to begin working this summer on a design for a program for UCSB. He thinks the goal is laudable but is cautious about the availability of sufficient and reliable resources to support the proposed network of six programs and associated resource centers on selected UC campuses.

The main difficulty with a math-science initiative such as this, Lucas says, “is not people power, but rather where the funding comes from, for example, for staff to do this, teachers’ stipends, or student loans. Just how sustainable is it?”

Part of the answer may come from private industry. To launch the program, corporate leaders from across California have pledged an initial $4 million over a five-year period. In total, 18 companies have committed to help UC improve K-12 science and math instruction.  

A full description of the “California Teach” program is available at

<http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/academics/1000teachers/>.