The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is giving $22.5 million over five years to research universities to support the UTeach program, ScienceInsider reports. UTeach, started at the University of Texas at Austin in 1997, helps train K-12 teachers in science, technology, engineering, and math, and the program has now been put into place at 33 other institutions, according to the program's website. Program graduates receive degrees both in science and in education. HHMI says that its grant will allow the National Math and Science Initiative to expand the program to 10 more research institutions.
"The fact that [UTeach] works, and has been up and running for some time, gives us confidence that it's an effective model," Sean Carroll, the vice president for science education at HHMI, tells ScienceInsider.
ScienceInsider notes that US President Barack Obama has outlined the need to train 100,000 new science and math teachers by the end of the decade.