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City to get $2 million for science education
Almost $2 million in state and private money will be used in El Paso this year to help teachers better reach students interested in math, science, engineering and technology, the Texas Education Agency announced.

The University of Texas at El Paso will get $1 million to create a center that will train teachers and develop lesson plans in advanced math and science for area teachers.

The state also gave the Burnham Wood Charter School $700,000 as part of its academies project. The charter will use it to help develop curriculum strategies for the new DaVinci School for Science and the Arts on the West Side.

The grants are part of the Texas Science, Technology, Engineering and Math program, which is intended to improve student performance in those academic areas - especially in regions that traditionally don't test well in the subjects.

"This is a great infusion of science and math to the area," said Burnham Wood Superintendent Iris Burnham.

Susana Navarro, the executive director of the El Paso Collaborative for Academic Excellence at UTEP, said the program will help develop better science and math teachers in the El Paso area. The collaborative is managing the grant at UTEP.

"It's very comprehensive in that it will provide not only the staff development, but also the curriculum development and alignment that is needed to perform at a high level in science, technology, engineering and math," Navarro said.

UTEP will spend months studying ways to better help teachers in science and math before actually starting any formal training. Navarro said she hopes the work in El Paso will bring in more state money, as well as grants from other private parties, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates and Michael and Susan Dell foundations.

Burnham said the DaVinci school - a middle and high school focusing on science and the arts - will use the grant money to train teachers, buy materials and even attract highly-qualified teachers.

"We want to build a foundation ... to develop a curriculum that will grow with the students," she said. "We want the teachers we bring to be the mentors for future teachers."

Source: Acosta, G.A. (2006) 'City to get $2 million for science education', El Paso Times, 18 July