About the Dana Center

The Dana Center collaborates with local and national entities to improve education systems so that they foster opportunity for all students, particularly in mathematics and science. We are dedicated to nurturing students' intellectual passions and ensuring that every student leaves school prepared for success in postsecondary education and the contemporary workplace—and for active participation in our modern democracy.

We provide direct service to school districts and institutions of higher education; to local, state, and national education leaders; and to nonprofits, agencies, and professional organizations concerned with strengthening American mathematics and science education.

We carry out our work by advocating for high academic standards and by building the capacity of education systems to ensure that all students can master the content described in these standards. We help our partners translate research into practice and adapt promising innovations to meet their local needs.

History of the Dana Center

The Charles A. Dana Center began at the University of California at Berkeley in the 1970s. The Dana Center's director, Uri Treisman, then a UC Berkeley graduate student, developed an early version of the Emerging Scholars Program.

ESP began as a workshop program designed to increase the number of college freshmen excelling in calculus who come from groups underrepresented in mathematics-based disciplines. The Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin was established in 1993 by UT mathematics professor Uri Treisman and UT administrator Jackie McCaffrey, then director of special projects in the College of Natural Sciences. Their purpose was to create programs that support the efforts of Texas students, especially ethnic minority and rural students, to achieve at the highest academic levels and to pursue advanced degrees in mathematics-based fields.

The Dana Center was established and continues at UT Austin with major funding from the Dana Foundation of New York.

Early in its history, the Dana Center took a leadership role in strengthening precollegiate mathematics and science education. In the late 1990s, the Center helped coordinate the development of the mathematics and science Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, which articulate what more than 4 million Texas children must know and be able to do in these academic subjects.

The Dana Center reinforced this work by collaborating with school districts and community-based organizations to increase educational access for all Texas students, especially those challenged by poverty. Today, the Dana Center has a presence in hundreds of Texas schools and in virtually every county across the state.