Greetings, 

I hope you enjoy the video. The University of Texas at Tyler is working to produce more and better trained STEM teachers. We thank NSF for their support through the Noyce program. Our model has evolved over time and we now have developed multiple pathways for STEM teacher preparation. These include a UTeach Model Replication for Middle and High School Preservice teachers and a Teacher Residency program that takes place in our Laboratory Schools for career changer and recent STEM graduates. Both models are proving to be effective at producing high quality teachers and initial retention data looks promising. I attribute much of this success to our school model and our intensive coaching model for interns, student teachers, and inservice teachers working in our schools. I look forward to the discussion. I will check in often throughout the day. 

Hi Michael!

Good to see your video up here and the great things you guys are doing in Tyler.

Mike

The UT-Tyler T-STEM Academy appears to be a holistic model for school transformation in k-12 schools. They study intervention strategies that work to improve K-12 STEM and teacher preparations. It is one of a few intervention strategies that address school reform and teacher preparation school reforms. This is a very high quality video that illustrates how to address a national challenge. I think the data presented really was influencial.

Hi, 

    An interesting effort!  I have two questions:

1.  The "education ecosystem" idea is popping up around the country in various contexts.  Is your  model of the STEM ecosystem still evolving?  Are there ways that you think it's distinctive?

2.  The improvements in achievement are encouraging.  Are you following cohorts of kids, to see if changes at (say) 4th grade persist over time?  

Thanks!

I appreciate the STEM focus of the school's design and your efforts. There is a lot of potential in thinking about STEM as a holistic endeavor (not just as S, T, E, and M in different classrooms). From your video and materials I see a strong teacher preparation/teacher development model. I don't see, however, how this is a school turnaround model. Can you explain your work, or this school, represents a turnaround model as opposed to a well-crafted STEM program design? Both or either are significant accomplishments. I just worry about low-performing schools putting the pieces of a STEM program in place on the assumption that those will 'turn around' the school, while the reality of school turnaround efforts are much deeper than the program components. Your thoughts and experiences -- or anyone else's -- would be helpful. Thanks!

The model for supporting both pre-service and in-service teachers' learning seems quite strong. I'm interested in whether and how the 2 groups of teachers come together in the program. Also, for the pre-service teachers, do you track them after they leave your program and move into school settings where they may have less support and where there may not be as much support for promoting STEM experiences?  If so, how do they do? 

The two primary preservice models for our STEM teachers is our Teacher Residency Model (career changers) and UTeach for our 4-12 STEM teachers. In the TRES model the inservice and preservice teachers are housed together in a mentor/mentee relationship. Our instructional coaches meet with them intensively to bring both types of teachers to do inquiry science, mostly PBL, at a high rigorous level. UTeach students have experiences aligned with UTeach courses at the Innovation Academy. traditional schools, and also at our informal venues. 

We have a limited induction but we are strengthening the program. If graduates teach in a public school in Texas we can track them as well as their student performance. (And we do). 

You might find our school website interesting: http://www.uttia.org/ NOTE: We are an OPEN ENROLLMENT School. 

About LINK, also might be interested in the academics link. 

The UT Tyler Innovation Academy (UTTIA) is a university charter public school. The charter was approved by the State Board of Education in 2012. The UTTIA opened locations at each of the UT Tyler Campuses in the same year:

• University of Texas Tyler
• University of Texas Tyler-Longview
• University of Texas Tyler-Palestine

The mission of the UT Tyler Innovation Academy is to develop students who leave school STEM College and Career Ready. STEM College Ready indicates students are prepared to enroll in a STEM Major at a university. Typically this means they are calculus ready upon graduation or have completed calculus in high school.

The UTTIA’s guiding document is the Texas STEM (T-STEM) Academy Blueprint. It is our goal to serve as a demonstration site for schools seeking to develop STEM Schools. The UTTIA was one of the first schools in Texas to apply the T-STEM blueprint to the elementary grades.

The UTTIA specializes in STEM Education and offers a STEM Pathway with an Engineering focus, Biomedical Focus,  or a Multidisciplinary Pathway with a Computer Science focus. 

All students are expected to graduate on the Distinguished Academic Plan and complete 15-40+ hours of university credit. Students need to be Algebra ready by 8^th grade and meet the Texas Success Initiative (TSI) assessment by the end of the sophomore year of high school to maximize the number of university credits earned while enrolled in high school.

The University of Texas at Tyler is the provider of Project Lead The Way (PLTW) for the state of Texas. PLTW is the nation’s leading provider of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs. Through world-class K-12 curriculum, PLTW helps students develop the skills needed to succeed in the global economy. The academy offers the following PLTW STEM programs currently:

• PLTW Launch is our program for third through fifth grades. Students become problem solvers using structured approaches, like the engineering design process, and employ critical thinking.
• PLTW Gateway provides engineering and biomedical science curriculum for middle school students that challenges, inspires, and offers schools variety and flexibility. Students get rigorous and relevant experiences through activity-, project-, and problem-based learning. They use industry-leading technology to solve problems while gaining skills in communication, collaboration, critical-thinking, and creativity.
• PLTW Engineering is our high school engineering program. It is about applying engineering, science, math, and technology to solve complex, open-ended problems in a real-world context. Students focus on the process of defining and solving a problem. They learn how to apply STEM knowledge, skills, and habits of mind to make the world a better place through innovation.
• The PLTW Biomedical Science (BMS) program is a series of four courses designed to guide students to the possibilities of medical based careers. The courses are complementary to the students’ core curriculum and are designed to expand upon college preparatory math and science programs. Students explore the concepts of human medicine, and examine the processes, structures and interactions of the human body – often playing the role of biomedical professionals. They also explore the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, working collaboratively to investigate and design innovative solutions to the health challenges of the 21st century.

The UTTIA serves as a laboratory school for the UT Tyler College of Education and Psychology. The goals of the lab school include:

• Conduct high-quality research on STEM teaching and learning.
• Develop innovations through research-based enhancements to current practice.
• To collaborate with researchers at other institutions, nationally and internationally, to conduct investigations into STEM learning.
• To strengthen teacher preparation and professional development by connecting the Lab School closely to preservice and inservice training.
• UTeach Model Demonstration Site
• Teacher Residency Model Demonstration Site
• Disseminate research results.
• Serve the UT System as a Core Research Facility for STEM Education.

UTTIA administrators and faculty work closely with UT Tyler Educator Preparation Programs. The UT Tyler UTeach STEM teacher preparation program (MS/HS) is integrated into the academy. UTeach students complete their Project Based Instruction coursework and complete significant clinical hours at the academy. Some UTeach Students have the opportunity to complete their Apprentice Teaching at the UTTIA. In addition, students preparing to become elementary teachers, special educators, reading specialists, school administrators, and counselors may also be involved at the UTTIA.