ARLINGTON, VA, OCTOBER 1, 2002—The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) has been awarded a $7.5 million grant as part of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) new Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program. With the five-year grant, NSTA will develop and administer the Virtual Mentoring for Student Success (VMSS) project, which aims to improve student performance in science by bolstering the effectiveness of new middle and high school science teachers.
NSTA is collaborating with the Science/Math Resource Center and the Burns Telecommunications Center at Montana State University (MSU), the NSF Center for Learning and Teaching in the West, and the New Teacher Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), and will partner with 12 school districts or rural consortia in schools in Montana and California.

“Support for science teachers has never been more critical,” said Gerry Wheeler, NSTA Executive Director and principal investigator for the VMSS project. “There is a staggering number of new teachers who will be entering the classroom in the coming years, and we need large-scale projects like this to support them at one of the most critical stages of their career. It’s a ‘make-or-break’ time for teachers.”

Research shows that four out of ten novice teachers leave the classroom within their first five years of teaching. With many experienced teachers slated for retirement, class size reductions, and an increasing number of children entering schools, it is estimated that more than half of the teachers in America’s classrooms will be hired during the coming decade.

The VMSS partnership project will design, pilot, and deliver a model for e-mentoring for science teachers. The partners will establish co-mentoring networks of new teachers, mentors, and current and future faculty; prepare a cadre of administrators who will support beginning teachers and their mentors in efforts to improve student learning; develop and widely disseminate national standards for the mentoring and induction of beginning science teachers; and create a national e-mentoring network to disseminate the model nationwide.

The VMSS project will provide mentoring support to beginning teachers in six large urban districts in California, where 21 percent of the 422 science teachers were first-year teachers last year, compared to just 15 percent of teachers in other fields.  In Montana, where VMSS will work with 90 tiny rural districts that make up six rural alliances, where an estimated 15–20 percent of the 282 science teachers and 296 math teachers in these schools were novices this year.

“This initiative has the ability to connect bright new science teachers with our most seasoned ones, regardless of their physical location,” added Wheeler.  “It gives science teachers a powerful new tool to help them master the first few years of teaching and concentrate on student success.”

The NSF Math and Science Partnership program is a five-year national effort to unite the activities of higher education institutions, K–12 school systems, and other partners in support of K–12 students and teachers.

The Arlington, VA-based National Science Teachers Association is the largest professional organization in the world promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all. NSTA's current membership includes more than 53,000 science teachers, science supervisors, administrators, scientists, business and industry representatives, and others involved in science education.

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