Preparation of Mathematics Majors to Become Highly Qualified Mathematics Teachers

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The Noyce Arizona Mathematics Teaching (AZ MaTh) Program will bring together partnerships between the Department of Mathematics and the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies at the University of Arizona, two high-need local educational agencies and a magnet middle school in Tucson. The goal of this program is to recruit mathematics majors that will become 30 highly qualified mathematics teachers in Arizona. The program will offer a head-on response to the shortage of highly qualified mathematics teachers through multifaceted and innovative recruitment activities, and by implementing a teacher preparation program that develops and strengthens prospective teachers' abilities to work with diverse students across Arizona and the rest of the nation. The program is characterized by involving a community of mathematics and mathematics education faculty, undergraduates, teachers, secondary mathematics students and their families in a collective effort to prepare high-quality mathematics teachers. While the program is designed for University of Arizona students to work with students from local school districts, it has the potential to become a model for other programs across the country; especially in the way prospective teachers interact with the local community and learn to incorporate their culture and language as educational assets. AZ MaTh will prepare secondary mathematics teachers with strong content and pedagogical knowledge as well as a deep understanding of cultural and linguistic aspects in the teaching and learning of mathematics to diverse students. The overall goals of the AZ Noyce MaTh Program will be to: (1) promote secondary mathematics teaching as a viable and engaging career choice for talented undergraduate students in mathematics, (2) recruit undergraduate students into the STEM teacher pipeline, with an emphasis on academic merit, and to increase the number of Secondary Mathematics Education Program graduates in the Department of Mathematics, (3) create a sustainable recruitment program for future mathematics teachers that includes significant and substantial experiences to work with middle and high school students, and (4) enhance our Secondary Mathematics Education Program to prepare future mathematics teachers for excellence in teaching and working with ethnically and linguistically diverse students in Arizona and nationwide. The AZ MaTh program provides high quality experiences for the potential teachers to work with students and families in local area schools, and with other undergraduate students enrolled in mathematics courses at various levels. These experiences include serving as (1) tutors in local secondary schools, (2) undergraduate teaching assistants in mathematics courses for elementary teachers, (3) teacher assistants in summer internships with partner schools, and (4) interns in an afterschool program at a partner bilingual school. Course materials and the outcomes and experiences of the Noyce scholars in the afterschool program will be made available to other mathematics educators and teacher preparation programs. The project takes advantage of ongoing and planned collaborations between mathematicians and mathematics educators to improve undergraduate course curricula for prospective teachers. The project team's research efforts also have the potential to contribute to a broad understanding of how intentional cultural sensitivity and attentiveness to language barriers during pre-service training of math teachers can lead to student success and a diversity in the types of teachers recruited to the program.