UCF to get $8M for math, special-needs teaching

The University of Central Florida will receive more than $8 million in grants to improve math and special-needs instruction, two areas in which the state is experiencing a teacher shortage. The grants from the U.S. Department of Education will be used to train future teachers as well as those already working in Central Florida classrooms.

The money will be used to meet a wide range of needs, including recruiting students who will receive doctoral degrees in special education and preparing teachers and speech-language pathologists for training autism spectrum disorders.

The largest single grant, valued at $3 million, will be used to improve math instruction, starting with 10 high-poverty public schools, said Mary Little, a UCF professor and the program coordinator in Exceptional Student Education. At those campuses, a “professor in residence” will train teachers and give feedback to other university faculty members so they can better prepare students majoring in education to teach math.

The training will stress critical-thinking skills, Little said.

“There’s definitely a need for people to learn more about in teaching mathematics beyond simple calculations,” she said.

Little declined to specify which schools will be involved but said they will all be near downtown Orlando.

The Orange County school district did not make any of its employees available for an interview about the program, which will eventually include training for teachers across the county.

UCF is one of the main suppliers of teachers for Central Florida districts, with about 1,500 students graduating each year with education degrees — more than any other state institution.

But statewide, interest teaching has lagged. in

The number of students earning degrees in education dropped from more than 7,700 in 2008-09 to 6,302 in 2015-16. During the same period, enrollment in Florida’s public schools has grown from 2.6 million K-12 students to nearly 2.8 million.

Like many states, Florida is experiencing a teaching shortage, especially in hard-to-fill areas like mathematics and special education. The state had more than 500 vacancies for teachers in those two areas during the 2017-18 school year, according to the education department.