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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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