Boeing funds teacher training at UC Irvine

Grant to extension program will help create an online course for science and math teachers.The Boeing Co. presented UC Irvine Extension with a $75,000 check Friday, funding an online course that will help science and mathematics teachers earn their credentials.

At a small reception in the campus administration building, Boeing executives presented the check to Chancellor Michael Drake and several leaders of UCI Extension. With the money, which will be matched by a second installment next year, the campus will establish a 10-course program to train non-credentialed teachers to pass the California Subject Examination for Teachers, or CSET.

In addition, undergraduates may take the online course as part of the University of California’s California Teach program, established by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in May, which seeks to train more science and math teachers at UC campuses.

“The special thing about this [course] is that it will make this kind of test preparation available on a wide scale,” said Morgan Appel, director of educational programs for UCI Extension.

Steven Chesser, senior manager of community relations for Boeing, said his company provided the money to UCI partly as a community service, but also as an investment in the future. Well-trained teachers, he said, could train first-rate science and math students, who could in turn grow up to work for Boeing and other companies.

“We’re altruistic in this, but we also want a qualified workforce,” Chesser said.

At the ceremony, Boeing vice president Gary Toyama, a graduate of UCI in the 1970s, presented Drake with the check. Drake began his short speech with a nod to Toyama, who has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in business administration from UCI.

“You’re well trained, and you’re equipped to go out and service the community,” Drake said. “That’s what we look for in our graduates.”

The California Teach program, which seeks to quadruple the number of credentialed science and math teachers graduating from University of California schools by 2010, is taking its first steps this year. Sue Marshall, UCI’s academic coordinator for education, said the campus would begin offering classes for aspiring teachers in the winter quarter.

In the California Teach program, undergraduates may earn both a bachelor’s degree and a teaching credential in a four-year course of study. Along the way, they can hone their teaching skills through field work in classrooms and summer internships in industry settings.

Marshall said the online program would benefit the California Teach program, even if it only partially applied to undergraduates.

“It’s an added tool in our tool chest for how we help those students,” she said.