Texas Education Agency: Science Inititiave
Funded
The Texas Education Agency has awarded $10 million to the Texas Regional Collaboratives for years 2005-2007 to continue its rich history of providing sustained, high-intensity professional development to P-16 teachers of science. The TRC infrastructure of 37 institutions of higher education collaborating with education service centers, school districts and business partners has a 15 year record of designing and implementing exemplary professional development using research-based methods, materials and best practices. With TEA support the TRC has expanded to include 35 local regional collaboratives across the state and will use its infrastructure to improve the knowledge and skills and develop the leadership capacity of over 10,000 Texas science teachers who in turn will share their experiences with other teachers through mentoring, peer coaching, and technical assistance. Major activities of the Texas Regional Collaboratives and supported by the funding include:
- Professional Development Academies - provided to Instructional Teams that consist of professors of Science and Science Education, Science Specialists and Master Teachers,
- Professional Development Programs - a minimum of 105 contact hours of TEKS-based professional development provided by Instructional Teams to teachers to prepare them to become Science Teacher Mentors,
- Honoring the Teachers-events to recognize and honor participating teachers and engage policy makers, legislators, and state leaders in the program, and the
- Annual Meeting-bringing together teacher leaders, education and business leaders, policy makers, and legislators to celebrate the achievements of the collaboratives.
