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NSF PR 02-81 - September 30, 2002
Math and Science Partnership Awards Announced
K-12, higher education institutions
unite in effort to boost learning
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced
24 awards under the new Math and Science Partnership
(MSP) program - an anticipated investment of $240
million over five years in projects to improve the
achievement of K-12 students in science and mathematics.
The Department of Education (ED) is an NSF partner
in this effort, co-funding two projects involving
state education agencies.
A key facet of President Bush's No Child Left Behind
education plan and the first investment in his five-year
$1 billion math and science partnership initiative,
these new partnership activities are designed to enhance
the performance of U.S. students in mathematics and
science. Partnership projects address key contributing
factors such as: too many teachers who are not fully
trained to teach math and science subjects; too few
students who take advanced coursework; and too few
schools that offer challenging curricula and textbooks.
The new partnership program will unite teachers and
administrators in K-12 schools, mathematics, science
and engineering faculty in colleges and universities,
and other stakeholders in K-12 education to improve
student outcomes. The new projects will seek to enhance
the quantity, quality and diversity of the math and
science teacher workforce at a time when many teachers
are retiring or otherwise leaving the profession.
Designed to raise mathematics and science achievement
of all students, MSP projects are also expected to
reduce the well-documented achievement gaps among
segments of student populations.
"These partnerships will become part of a broad national
network of interconnected sites that will share successful
instructional strategies, entice and train competent
science and math teachers and improve learning for
millions of students," said NSF Director Rita Colwell.
"One of the key outcomes of these grants will be the
improved content knowledge of teachers of mathematics
and science in districts across America," said U.S.
Secretary of Education Rod Paige. "This will undoubtedly
lead to improved student achievement."
The seven comprehensive awards announced today total
about $147 million over five years and will affect
about 1.8 million students in 11 states. Comprehensive
MSP projects are designed to continuously improve
student achievement in math and science from the earliest
grades through grade 12.
Seventeen targeted partnership grants are designed
to improve achievement in specific disciplines or
grade ranges. They total about $90 million over five
years and will affect about 200 school districts and
some 600,000 pre-K through grade 12 students in 11
states.
Also, 12 smaller awards for capacity building projects
will focus on research, evaluation and technical assistance
for the MSP Learning Network. Through this vehicle,
researchers and practitioners in MSP and other related
projects will unite in a national effort to further
develop understanding of how students best learn mathematics
and science. It will also promote broad dissemination
and emulation of successful strategies in educational
practice.
"These partnerships will increase our nation's ability
to serve all of our students well and will support
the quality of our science and engineering enterprise,"
said Judith Ramaley, NSF's Assistant Director for
Education and Human Resources.
See also:
For more information, see: http://www.nsf.gov/home/ehr/
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