AUGUSTA – In a new role for the University of Maine System, faculty from all seven campuses will expand their relationships with public schools by helping recruit and mentor new teachers, develop curriculum and provide professional development, Chancellor Joseph Westphal announced Thursday.

As part of the new “educational partnership,” UMS will help address the state’s growing shortage of math, science, foreign language and special education teachers, said Westphal.

It is also intended to address the difficulties teachers experience in meeting their certification requirements and in continuing their education, he said. The announcement was made during a break in the Maine School Management Association’s annual fall conference at the Augusta Civic Center.

“These are ambitious plans. We are undertaking them because teacher recruitment, preparation and professional development are critical to Maine’s future. Quality schools and qualified teachers influence the performance and aspirations of their students,” he said, flanked by Commissioner of Education J. Duke Albanese and Sen. Betty Lou Mitchell, R-Etna, and Rep. Shirley Richard, D-Madison, co-chairs of the Legislature’s Education Committee.

“Working together, the partners in this endeavor will strengthen public education in ways, that, over time, will increase college aspirations, preparedness, and achievement,” he said.

The chancellor has included in his biennium budget request $3.5 million – $1 million the first year and $2.5 million the second- to put the plan into gear. Additional money would be provided through “a reallocation” of UMS resources and private fund raising, he said.

Under the new plan, which “marks a new and more aggressive university response” to the educational challenges facing the state, Westphal said the university system would build on the 150 “partnerships” it already has with Maine’s K-12 schools, the Department of Education and other government agencies.

Some of the plan’s 11 steps include: creating professional development schools in which teams work with university faculty in trying different education approaches; promoting teacher retention and certification by providing mentors; developing alternative routes to certification; expanding delivery of graduate-level courses; creating an early childhood research and professional development center; obtaining financial support for a teacher scholarship fund; and designing ways to align educational expectations between high school and college.

Robert Cobb, dean of UM’s College of Education, called the plan “unprecedented.”

“In 25 years I haven’t seen this “kind of interest and support at the system level in teacher education and partnering with the K-12 schools with an investment of new resources,” Cobb said. “It’s unprecedented to have this level of interest and financial support making this a priority for the whole university system.”

“It’s great we have a chancellor that made this a systemwide priority. We’re delighted he agrees with us that the university system needs to do more to work with K-12 education,” said UM President Peter Hoff, noting that the new plan “definitely dovetails” with his campus’s new initiative to become more involved in teacher training and recruitment.

Hoff said UM will be “especially helpful” in encouraging students to become math and science teachers, and to coordinate master’s programs across the state.