UTSA Associate Professor Francis Norman with teachers

UTSA receives $400K to train area math teachers

By Kris Rodriguez
Public Affairs Specialist

(July 21, 2005)--The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board awarded $400,000 in grant funding to The University of Texas at San Antonio Department of Mathematical Sciences to assist 125 mathematics teachers in the San Antonio area.

The five grants totaling $400,000 will fund summer workshops reviewing teacher content knowledge in Algebra I, Algebra II and Geometry. The workshops also will also focus on improving the inclusion of minorities and special-needs students in mathematics discussions in the classroom.

"We are still collecting data, but our initial results show the students of teachers who attended last year's workshops are doing much better in the math sections of the Texas Assessment and Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) tests," said Betty Travis, UTSA mathematics professor. "It's the whole issue of closing the gaps, so these students are more prepared when they enroll in college."

Participants in the workshops will be reviewed during the academic year to see if they are incorporating strategies learned this summer into their mathematics curricula.

According to a 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science study, 15-year-old students in the United States scored below the average international math score and were outperformed in mathematics in 23 of 38 countries.