State puts emphasis on science, math skills

Minnesota's latest efforts to bring its students up to speed in science and math are putting a sharper focus on teaching.

State Department of Education officials announced Wednesday the opening of nine regional centers where teams of teachers from throughout the state will be schooled in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) topics. Teachers will then take the knowledge and teaching strategies they pick up at these Math and Science Teacher Academy regional centers back to the classroom.

The academy, proposed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty and funded by the 2007 Legislature and a grant from the National Governors Association, will have branches in existing buildings in such locations as Plymouth, Fergus Falls, Staples, Rochester, Marshall and St. Cloud. Training begins this summer.

Minnesota Education Commissioner Alice Seagren said Wednesday that what sets Minnesota's effort apart from math and science academies in other states is the participation of colleges, universities and other institutions.

For instance, Winona State University, Normandale Community College, Gustavus Adolphus College and the Science Museum of Minnesota are among the organizations that will be involved in the training.

The Math and Science Teacher Academy stands as one of several measures meant to address what some educators and public figures consider to be a dangerous deficiency in STEM knowledge and interest among Minnesota students. The fear is that too many other countries have outstripped Minnesota and the United States in their emphasis on STEM learning, and that, as a result, those countries will eventually produce many more engineers and scientists, and forge ahead in industry and innovation.

As part of the initiative to improve STEM education in Minnesota, grants have been awarded to schools that want to focus more on those subjects. Students will have a greater responsibility, too. Beginning with the Class of 2015, they will have to take Algebra I in eighth grade, and Algebra II, which is currently not a state-required course, during high school.

Seagren said she doesn't want the academy to become only a temporary initiative.

"It is our desire that we have this not for the short term, but long-term funding," she said.

State officials don't yet know how many teachers will participate in the summer academy sessions, Seagren said. She said much of the initial training will involve bringing the state's middle schools in sync with the new, and tougher, math requirements. The intent of the academy, though, is to go much further than that.

"It's not just to make sure children learn Algebra I and Algebra II," Seagren said. "It is to really understand that if we don't train students more robustly in these fields we will truly lose ground in the world."