UA Secondary Math Education Program Earns Designation

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The secondary math education program in the College of Education at The University of Alabama has received recognition from the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics.

NCTM, which manages accreditation processes of math education programs for the Council of the Accreditation of Educator Preparation, has granted UA’s secondary math education program the two-year designation, a first for the program, which joins music education, school psychology, school counseling, and school library as programs to hold the designation through CAEP.

The secondary math education program will be listed as “nationally recognized” on NCTM and CAEP websites, a designation that classifies the program as a one with a strong emphasis on research-based practices in the preparation of future mathematics teachers, said Dr. Jeremy Zelkowski, director of UA’s secondary math education program.

The designation will help the program recruit high-school seniors, both in-state and out-of-state, for its undergraduate program, Zelkowski said.

“We have 15 to 20 students who come into this institution each year thinking they want to be a math teacher,” Zelkowski said. “We have to have a higher number of students entering the program.”

The secondary math education program graduates roughly 15 students each year, with around 100 in the pipeline and on campus at one time. Zelkowski’s goal is to increase the number of graduates to 20 annually by the year 2020.

Historically, the state of Alabama has a math and physical science teacher shortage of roughly 20 percent, a figure that’s likely increased recently due to the Praxis Math test cut-off increasing, he said.

“We have a shot to do it next year,” Zelkowski said. “We have 26 who are entering the final two years of the program. But, we have to be concerned with keeping them in the classroom.”

Graduates of the SEMA program teach anywhere from middle school to high school, in courses that range from pre-algebra to pre-Calculus. The program is challenging, and there’s some attrition each year, Zelkowski said.

While increasing the number of students who enter the program is a primary goal, Zelkowski is keen to continue increasing the quality of the program’s incoming freshmen. Zelkowski said the NCTM designation will help the program’s name recognition with current high-school teachers, who often play a prominent role in providing advice about secondary math education programs, Zelkowski said.

“If the teachers know their seniors and juniors want to go into teaching, they provide the advice on where to go,” he said. “I’m hoping this gives us inroads into areas we haven’t recruited as well.”