Texas Teacher Externship Program

Visit the University of Texas at Austin Center for STEM Education to learn how to apply for a grant to assist classroom teachers.

The Teacher Externship Program provides educators across Texas the opportunity to connect classroom instruction with real world applications. Providing these connections is critical to making learning meaningful for students and providing teachers skills/tools that they can bring back to the classroom to enhance instruction and student learning. Teacher externs will:

• Gain professional development opportunities that connect the classroom to the workplace.
• Interact with industry leaders via direct experience at a job site.
• Teach about the trends, skills and opportunities in industries related to their content to enrich and strengthen instruction and to bring relevance to student learning.

Background

The Teacher Externship Program is funded by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and administered by the Center for STEM Education at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). Pilot programs were established throughout Texas from January -August 2017 with high-profile industry partners. The pilot included 10 sites across the state and served 71 educators and 37 businesses/industries. Business/industry partners represented a cross section of fields including:

2017-2018 Texas Teacher Externship Activities

In the 2017-2018 school year, UT Austin will provide mini-grants to approximately 20 districts and/or Education Service Centers serving approximately 400 educators. Business/industry partners will work with program participants to provide an externship experience that accomplishes the goal of connecting the classroom and workplace. Externship opportunities will be focused on the Governor’s Industry Clusters including:

• Advanced Technologies and Manufacturing
• Aerospace
• Biotechnology and Life Sciences
• Construction
• Energy
• Information and Computer Technology
• Petroleum Refining and Chemical Products

Educators participating in the program will have pre-and post-professional development and will create lesson plans to use in their classroom and share with other educators on their campus.

The expected outcomes of the Teacher Externship Program include: increasing the number of educators participating in an externship, increasing the number of businesses and industries offering externship opportunities, and a satisfaction survey of teacher and industry partners.

Statewide Resource Development

UT Austin will develop resources for districts, campuses, teachers and business/industry partners to use to establish local teacher externship programs. Resources to be developed include:

• Texas Teacher Externship Framework
• Guide for Business/Industry hosting Teacher Externs
• Information on existing Teacher Externship programs