Building Exceptional Science and Math Teachers The Focus of Education Conference

July 7, 2008

Event: The University of Texas at Austin's Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching (TRC) is holding its 14th Annual Meeting, titled "From Legislation to Implementation: Achieving Excellence in STEM Education." The keynote address will be delivered by state Rep. Donna Howard, a member of the House's Higher Education Committee.

The TRC is a powerful and influential statewide network of schools, community members, corporate partners, state governmental agencies, universities and policy makers that has built a demonstrably successful professional development training program for P-12 science and math teachers.

When: An interactive showcase of Texas science and math teachers' innovative classroom teaching strategies will be displayed Wednesday, July 9, from 6-7 p.m. The formal TRC dinner and program will be from 7 p.m. until around 9 p.m. and will feature remarks from Texas legislators and a representative of the Texas Education Agency.

Where: All conference events will occur at the Hilton Airport Hotel, 9515 New Airport Drive in Austin. The Wednesday evening reception and dinner will be in the hotel's Bergstrom Ballroom Lobby and Bergstrom Ballroom. TRC staff members, teachers, educators, and affiliates will be offering onsite classes in cutting-edge science and math instruction during the day, July 9-11. For programmatic questions and a schedule of conference events, workshops and classes, please contact Dr. Carol Fletcher TRC, 512-925-4947, carol.fletcher@mail.utexas.edu.

Background: The TRC is part of the Center for Science and Mathematics Education in the College of Education and has collaboratives serving schools in all 254 Texas counties. To date, the TRC has received around $45 million in funding from state, federal and corporate partners including the Texas Education Agency, Shell Oil Company, AT&T Foundation, El Paso Corporation, Toyota USA Foundation, the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation and the National Science Foundation.

All of the TRC's activities are data-driven and informed by state, national and international research, including research done at the Center for Science and Mathematics Education. The program has provided professional development training to over 14,000 science teachers and 8,500 math teachers. These teachers have positively impacted the learning outcomes of over one million youth.

"We stand ready, willing and able to continue our contribution to the successful implementation of the 4x4 legislation, our state's science and math initiatives, the No Child Left Behind legislation and the American Competitiveness Initiative for the Improvement of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in Texas and beyond," says Dr. Kamil A. Jbeily, founder and executive director of the Texas Regional Collaboratives.

Learn more about the significant impact of the TRC program.

For more information, contact: Kay Randall, College of Education, 512 232 3910.