Texaco Inc. and WNET, New York City’s principal public-television station, are joining forces to expand a teacher-training institute that encourages the use of educational television in science classrooms.
A $750,000 grant from Texaco will expand the program in the New York City area and spread it to 10 additional sites around the country.
The training institute was launched as a pilot program in 1990 with an initial $500,000 grant from the oil company, which has its headquarters in the New York City suburb of White Plains, N.Y.
The three-day institute shows elementary and secondary science teachers how to develop ways to use educational video segments in the classroom.
“The success of the pilot program, coupled with our planned national rollout, can significantly enhance science instruction for millions of students,” James W. Kinnear, president and chief executive officer of Texaco, said here during a news conference at the Education Department last month.
Deputy Secretary of Education David T. Kearns praised the institute as an example of private-sector initiative in education.
Donald E. Ledwig, president and chief executive officer of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, announced a $250,000 grant to WNET for the expansion of the training institute to additional sites. Of the Texaco grant, $500,000 is to go for training additional science teachers in the New York City area and $250,000 to expand the program nationally.
The institute’s new sites are public television stations or authorities in 10 cities or states. They are KQED in San Francisco, WVIZ in Cleveland, KERA/KDTN in Dallas, WLRN in
Miami, KCTS in Seattle, KCPT in Kansas City, Mo., the Regional Educational Television Advisory Council in Los Angeles, Louisiana Public Broadcasting, the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board, and South Carolina ETV.
The pilot institute in 1990 used 23 master teachers to train some 240 teachers in the New York City area, who were then able to help teachers at their own schools use the video lesson plans developed by WNET.
“The driving force of this project is teachers teaching teachers to be better equipped to teach students,” said Ruth Ann Burns, vice president and director of the educational-resources center at WNET.
