Collaborative Research: Understanding Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Outcomes in Texas

在2010年国家研究理事会的报告《培养教师：为健全的政策建立证据》中，强调了缺乏足够研究基础的STEM教师培养相关领域。 该Noyce Track 4A研究项目将与德克萨斯州的八所大学合作，研究Noyce职前教师计划与有效招聘，准备和保留相关的特点。 休斯顿大学，斯蒂芬F。奥斯汀州立大学、休斯顿大学克利尔湖分校、休斯顿大学市区分校、德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校、德克萨斯大学阿灵顿分校、德克萨斯州立大学和德克萨斯农工大学金斯维尔分校将合作促进对各自诺伊斯STEM职前教育计划组成部分的严格评估。伙伴关系中的机构代表了一系列广泛的方案，包括不同的特点，如环境（农村与城市），学科重点（例如，数学，一般STEM教育），并招募到该计划的学生（本科生，学士后学生，职业转换者）。此外，它们在实施方法和方案组成部分方面也各不相同。通过这种研究伙伴关系，这些计划将收集和共享数据，与休斯顿大学教育政策研究与评估研究所（IEPRE）和教师教育研究，评估和促进中心（CREATE）合作，这是一个由德克萨斯州五十六所教师教育机构组成的多系统联盟，使一个大的研究，这将允许调查的组成部分，导致增加有效的STEM教师在高需求的教室的数量。特别是，项目和CREATE之间的数据共享，提供了有关教师流动的管理数据和将课堂教师与学生成绩联系起来的数据，将促进项目特征与教师效率，流动和保留的联系。这八个机构的合作伙伴关系将寻求回答以下四个广泛的研究问题：1）在实施诺伊斯计划的参与者中，相关大学课程的特点是什么？2)对于进入并留在教学行业的教师候选人，诺伊斯和非诺伊斯参与者如何比较各种个人和接收校园的特点？3)相对于他们的非参与的同龄人，在什么程度上，以何种方式教师参与Noyce为基础的准备有后续的影响K-12学生的学业成绩？国家政策如何影响教师的招聘和保留？这些问题将通过定性和定量的方法，包括访谈，地理信息系统（GIS）映射，事件历史分析和倾向得分分析的描述性分析，以创建匹配的样本诺伊斯和非诺伊斯准备的教师是相似的基线特征，使教师有效性的措施进行比较。最后一个问题将通过政策分析加以解决。 这种独特的研究合作伙伴关系，加入了几个诺伊斯计划在一个国家将提供一个模型，从保留通过诱导评估供应商的做法，以确定程序组件，促进有效的招聘，培训，并保留在高需求的学校STEM教师。 这项多机构研究的结果将有可能为全国各地的教师教育计划提供信息，特别是与招聘，准备和保留在高需求环境中教授学生的STEM学科教师以及增强或抑制这一点的政策有关。

In the 2010 National Research Council's report, Preparing Teachers: Building Evidence for Sound Policy, areas related to STEM teacher preparation that lacked a sufficient research base were highlighted. This Noyce Track 4A research project will engage eight universities in Texas in a collaborative research study of the characteristics of Noyce pre-service teacher programs related to effective recruitment, preparation, and retention. The University of Houston, Stephen F. Austin State University, the University of Houston-Clear Lake, the University of Houston-Downtown, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Texas at Arlington, Texas State University, and Texas A&M University-Kingsville will collaborate to promote rigorous evaluation of components of their respective Noyce STEM pre-service education programs. The institutions in the partnership represent a broad array of programs encompassing differences in characteristics such as setting (rural vs. urban), disciplinary focus (e.g., mathematics, general STEM education), and students recruited into the program (undergraduates, post-baccalaureate students, career changers). In addition, they vary in implementation methodology and program components. Through this research partnership, these programs will collect and share data, collaborating with the University of Houston's Institute for Educational Policy Research and Evaluation (IEPRE) and the Center for Research, Evaluation, and Advancement of Teacher Education (CREATE), a multi-system consortium comprised of fifty-six teacher education institutions across Texas, to enable a large study that will allow for investigation of components leading to increasing the number of effective STEM teachers in high-need classrooms. In particular, data sharing between the programs and CREATE, which provides access to administrative data regarding teacher movement and data connecting classroom teachers to student achievement, will facilitate connection of program characteristics to teacher effectiveness, movement, and retention.This eight institution collaborative partnership will seek to answer the following four broad research questions: 1) Among participants in implemented Noyce programs, what are the characteristics of the associated university-based programs? 2) For teacher candidates who enter and remain in the teaching profession, how do Noyce and non-Noyce participants compare with respect to a variety of individual and receiving campus characteristics? 3) Relative to their non-participating peers, to what extent and in what ways does teacher participation in Noyce-based preparation have subsequent influence on K-12 student academic performance? and 4) How are state policies influencing recruiting and retaining teachers? These questions will be addressed through both qualitative and quantitative methods, including descriptive analysis of interviews, geographic information system (GIS) mapping, event history analysis, and propensity score analysis to create matched samples of Noyce and non-Noyce prepared teachers that are similar on baseline characteristics to enable comparison of measures of teacher effectiveness. The final question will be addressed through policy analysis. This unique research partnership that joins several Noyce programs in a single state will provide a model for evaluating provider practices from retention through induction to identify program components promoting effective recruitment, training, and retention of STEM teachers in high needs schools. The results of this multi-institutional study will have the potential to inform teacher education programs across the country, particularly related to recruiting, preparing, and retaining teachers of STEM disciplines who teach students in high need settings, as well as policies that enhance or inhibit this.