At the beginning of this school year, the Renton School District had a tough choice. Due to a shortage of qualified teachers, the district had three unfilled math teaching positions. Equally short-staffed were the surrounding districts, scrambling to fill their own math teaching positions with substitutes, principals and under-qualified teachers.

Fortunately, instead of continuing the year behind, the Renton School District chose to get innovative. According to the Seattle Times, partnering with Seattle University, Renton has created a program aimed at increasing the number of certified math instructors in the districts' middle and high schools by 50 percent. No small feat.

"We couldn't wait for the state or universities to catch up to our demands," said Renton’s Superintendent Mary Alice Heuschel. "Quite honestly, some of the lack of interest for young kids in math is the gap in the training of our teachers."

Twenty Renton teachers will attend a twice-weekly course led by Seattle U professors on a range of topics from math basics to physics. Successful completion would mean they are qualified to teach math in grades eight through 12. These classes are offered at the Renton School District's offices.

This provides a much more viable option for teachers that are already in the system and willing to make a switch into a high demand subject and grade span. Seattle U has offered Renton teachers discounted tuition and the district is working to secure a grant from a private company to make the program free.

As the state looks at more closely aligning the diploma with college and workplace expectations, the common concern I hear is that we don't have enough teachers for higher level math and science classes.

Hats off to the Renton School District for taking a fresh and innovative approach to this challenge.

I had lunch with the Renton superintendent last week and asked if she was ready for all the attention this program would attract. In typical Mary Alice fashion she said, "Absolutely. Bring it on."

She said the curriculum they had developed for this certification program was rock solid.

She was also quick to applaud Seattle University for taking a chance on this program. She clearly felt a heavy sense of responsibility for maintaining a program that was as rigorous, if not more, than what would be delivered in a traditional program on the Seattle U campus.