WNY Noyce Scholars Partnership: A NSF Noyce Phase II Scholarship and Stipend Project

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STEM and education faculty of SUNY-Buffalo State College (BSC) are working together with 99 Western New York school districts grouped into 5 Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), the BSC Center for Excellence in Urban and Rural Education, other SUNY colleges and high-need LEAs to build on a successful Noyce Phase I project that has supported 42 new STEM teachers since 2003. This Phase II project is significantly increasing the number of preK-12 teachers by at least another 35 individuals who are certified and well-qualified to teach mathematics, physical science and physics, by recruiting and fostering new STEM teacher candidates, and by financing their attendance for up to 2 years in existing regular and alternative certification programs. The Phase II activities are centered upon the continued support and extended analysis and characterization of efforts recruiting nontraditional candidates from STEM disciplines to teacher preparation programs at BSC, including regular and alternative certification programs. The project is using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol for classroom observations to be correlated with school student State assessment scores for at least the first 2 years of teaching of Phase II S&S scholars. Project activities continue to include the support of professional STEM community events attended by scholarship candidates and others, supporting the participation of Noyce scholars in state and national professional STEM teacher organizations and induction experiences, and research and publication upon those issues particular to the STEM professional switching into the teaching profession. The project is continuing to document and iterate studies and models of the concerns and methods of professional preparation for STEM professional candidates who switch into the STEM teaching profession. These latter studies and models are transferrable to and have been broadly informing other colleges and universities specializing in teacher preparation, high-need LEAs seeking to meet projected and current staffing shortages for STEM teachers, and candidates and potential candidates themselves.