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Uri Treisman offers his thoughts on how college
faculty can help minority students achieve excellence.
Colleges can help improve minority achievement in high school math
and science by bridging the gap between high school teachers and
professors, Uri Treisman said during a February 11th lecture at
Atlanta's Morehouse College.
Treisman, a professor of mathematics at the University
of Texas at Austin, has been researching minority achievement in
math for more than 20 years and has won several honors and awards
for his efforts to improve education.
“We have an obligation to reach out to the people
who have sent us kids and provide them with tools that will increase
the likelihood that their kids can do better than the generation
before,” Treisman said.
Sitting on top of the lab bench at the front of the
lecture hall with his ankles crossed and palms together, Treisman
spoke to about 20 Morehouse professors and a handful of Emory University
graduate students.
“We are all connected as a community of teachers,”
Treisman said. “None of us does this work in isolation. We all depend
on each other's work. What kinds of support do [high school teachers]
need to increase their ability to send us better and better students?”
“For me, focusing on high school teachers was something
key,” says Irma Santoro, one of the Emory graduate students. “We
should be working together.”
Treisman took the first step in creating a relationship
between high school and college faculty when he contacted some of
his students' previous teachers. “One of the things I've done early
in my career is ask my students for the names of the high school
teachers, in math, who most increased their affection for the subject
and have most contributed to their school success,” Treisman said.
“I have written them all thank-you letters.”
Letting high school teachers know about the influence
they have had on their students encourages them to continue impacting
future students. “Teachers are motivated by direct evidence that
what they're trying makes a difference in the lives of the kids
in their classrooms,” Treisman said. “It's true for college faculty
as well as high school faculty.”
“What he's saying really connects to the kinds of
things we're doing,” says Pat Marsteller, professor of biology and
director of the Emory College Center for Science Education (ECCSE).
The ECCSE has developed and participates in several programs designed
to help high school teachers improve science education, including
the Georgia Intern-Fellowships for Teachers (GIFT) program.
The ECCSE also has programs encouraging undergraduate
students to become involved with improving science education. “I
envision helping the next generation of scientists and medical doctors
think about this as a potential piece of their responsibility,”
Marsteller says.
Treisman's lecture entitled “Higher Education's Role
in Strengthening K-12 Education: Minority Achievement in Math and
Science” is part of an ongoing lecture series at Morehouse College.
The series is sponsored by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education,
aimed at improving science education, and by the ECCSE.
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