The Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the State Board of Education recognizes that improving science and mathematics education in North Carolina will require systemic reform of K-12 instruction. An essential component of improving students’ abilities to understand science and mathematics subjects is to produce and reward a cadre of well-prepared teachers who have both content knowledge and the pedagogical skills to serve as change agents for the state and make a difference in the lives of their students by awakening their passion for these subjects. The largest hurdle in accomplishing this goal has been a disproportionately severe shortage of teachers in science and mathematics (even beyond North Carolina’s ongoing teacher shortage). Just 12 percent of the University of North Carolina system’s 4,003 newly-prepared teachers in recent years were certified in science and mathematics.