The University of NH in Durham and Albany International Corp. in Rochester have joined forces to increase the number of K-12 teachers in the state with strong knowledge in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
 
Albany International Corp.’s granted $300,000 over three years to the STEM Teachers Collaborative, which focuses on increasing K-12 teachers’ expertise in STEM fields and extending the impact of STEM teachers to more students throughout the state. An additional grant by Albany International Corp. of $75,000 to the Rochester schools will help offset STEM teacher training expenses.

“From our vantage point, there is no greater source of long-term competitive advantage than talent, especially STEM talent, and no better way for a state to promote long-term economic development than by investing in its STEM infrastructure,” said Albany International Corp. President & CEO Joe Morone. “We completely agree with the report of the Governor’s Task Force on K-12 STEM Education that business has a responsibility to form educational partnerships that help build that infrastructure, and we very much hope that our collaboration with UNH and the Rochester schools will be duplicated by other companies with other school districts in other parts of the state.” 

According to a recent report by the N.H. Governor’s Task Force on K-12 STEM Education, the state needed to hire 184 science and math teachers for the 2012-13 school year but there were only 91 teacher prep candidates qualified to teach the subjects.

UNH was recently selected as a national partner in the 100K in10 initiative, started by the Carnegie Corporation of New York to prepare 100,000 STEM teachers by 2021. UNH is the only organization in the state to be invited to join.

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