Local News in Brief : UCLA Receives Grant

UCLA has received a $330,000 grant to create a support program for new science teachers in the Los Angeles and Long Beach unified school districts.

Project director Janet Thornber said the award, given to UCLA’s Center for Academic Interinstitutional Programs, a division of the Graduate School of Education, will be used to give additional training to new science teachers at 15 junior high schools in the Los Angeles district and five in Long Beach.

The goal is to reduce the attrition rate among young science teachers. Almost 10% of the state’s 7,500 public school science teachers lack the science training for a regular teaching credential in the field and have only emergency credentials, an education official in Sacramento said.

The program, financed for three years, will begin this fall when 20 beginning teachers, including a number from schools with large minority enrollments, are nominated by their principals. Twenty new teachers will start the program in the second year.

Each teacher will be matched with a veteran teacher from his or her school. The newcomers will be encouraged to turn to the veterans for advice and encouragement.

During the first year of the program, beginning and experienced teachers will attend a series of Saturday workshops where exemplary science teachers will present model lessons.

Thornber said the demonstrations will include ways to encourage students to be active, not passive, learners. They will also include advice on reaching students with limited fluency in English. In addition, the teachers will attend a summer institute next year on the UCLA campus.

During the second year of the program, teachers will attend additional Saturday workshops to reinforce what they have learned.