$12.5m grant offers teachers a science primer

In a third-floor classroom at Charlestown High School, where models of human and animal skulls perch on a shelf near creature-filled specimen jars, teacher Allyson Via asked her chatty class yesterday to examine the science of water molecules.

Using an eyedropper, sophomore Lance Greene, 16, squeezed a small stream onto a piece of wax paper. ''They're sliding around," said his lab partner, Wei Men Ng, also 16.

The lesson was simple: Wax repels water. But the vast majority of Boston's public school students don't get such hands-on experience.

Unlike Via, who has a doctorate in environmental science and is considered highly qualified by the state, 80 percent of the city's science teachers aren't fully licensed to teach the subject.

Boston school officials vow to change that by using a $12.5 million, five-year grant to be announced today by the University of Massachusetts at Boston to retrain the system's science teachers.

The money arrives at a critical time in the push for school accountability by state and federal officials. Of 795 science teachers in Boston, 649 do not meet state standards to be fully licensed in science. But by 2006, they must pass a state test to teach specific science classes, such as physics and chemistry.

If they fail, their school could face penalties, but the federal government has yet to make the consequences clear, said state officials.

The new requirement for teachers takes effect one year before high-schoolers must pass science, in addition to math and English, on the statewide MCAS exam to graduate. The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires that all students be tested in English, math, and science by the 2007-2008 school year.

''We have a lot of teachers who don't have that [licensing] certification because that was not their major in college. And we have a lot of people who have math degrees and we use them to teach science," said Chris Coxon, a Boston public schools deputy superintendent. ''They are licensed teachers, but the state standards for science require a higher level of instruction."

Boston is not alone. Nationally, up to three-fourths of students are taught science by teachers who did not major or minor in the subject in college, according to UMass-Boston researchers.

Low-income and minority-group students have a much greater chance of having unqualified teachers, because they are in poorer school districts that have trouble attracting the best teachers, said Hannah Sevian, an assistant professor of science education and chemistry at UMass-Boston.

''The problem is much worse in urban school systems," she said. ''My job is to prepare urban teachers to teach."

So far, Boston's MCAS results in science have been dismal: 63 percent of eighth-graders failed the science and technology portion of the test. Only 31 percent of eighth-graders failed statewide.

In the program, about 400 science teachers in grades 6 through 12 will take courses at Northeastern University and UMass-Boston in small groups over five years. Faculty from Harvard Medical School will also show teachers and parents how to promote science and technology careers to teenagers.

Besides covering the classes, the grant will pay for each teacher to pair up with a university professor for a full school year. The professors will work side by side with teachers, visiting classrooms and helping them to boost student test scores.

''What we liked about Boston was that there really was a clear commitment from the higher-education folks, and it's expected to improve science education in the primary grades," said Diane Spresser, head of the Math Science Partnership program at the National Science Foundation, which awarded the grant.

Teachers can earn college credit, and each will receive a $1,000-plus stipend to take a two-week summer course on what's most important to teach in physics, chemistry, earth science, life science, and engineering. The training will continue through the following school year, Sevian said. The program starts in January.

''We are going to be phasing this in on a school-by-school basis, and by the end of the grant all middle and high schools in Boston will have participated," Sevian said. ''For me, the most exciting part is that all students in Boston will benefit."

Special-education students and those who are recent immigrants learning English will be an important focus, Sevian said. There will be professors who specialize in those areas working with teachers, she said.

The science partnership in Boston is already winning accolades from Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat who helped push the idea.

''It has the potential to give our city schools much greater liberty to offer world-class science instruction to all students," Kennedy said. ''Our schools are succeeding in improving student achievement in reading and math, but science is another story. The partnership's plan can change all that over the next five years, and it deserves our strong support."

Megan Tench can be reached at mtench@globe.com