Breaking the Cycle: Preparing Future STEM Teachers for the Highest Need Urban Schools by Embracing Culturally-responsive Instruction

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The Track 1 Noyce project at Florida International University (FIU), "Breaking the cycle: Preparing future STEM teachers for the highest need urban schools by embracing culturally responsive instruction", will substantially increase the number of highly qualified teachers prepared to serve in high-need school districts. The project will recruit, prepare, administer two-year scholarships and facilitate induction for 33 Scholars over the five-year project. FIU, an urban public research university with over 54,000 students, is partnering with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the fourth largest school district in the nation serving over 350,000 students, to establish the project testbed in highly diverse Miami, Florida. The project embraces the diversity of FIU's student body, over 78% of which are from historically underrepresented groups, and develops their culturally responsive instructional practices so they are prepared to break the cycle of persistent low achievement as future education leaders in the highest need schools. In parallel, the project will establish a dissemination model to enable adoption and adaptation across the nation.The project targets developing critical teaching agency in Noyce Scholars in order to prepare them to serve in critical needs school via authentic community-based learning focused on three major activities: 1) Authentic Field Experiences in Critical Needs Schools, 2) Cohort Experience and 3) Research and Instructional Internships. Noyce Scholars will be primarily recruited through the FIUteach program, FIU's high-fidelity replication of the UTeach teacher preparation model that has developed into one of the nation's largest UTeach replication sites. Upon induction, Scholars will receive dedicated support including 1) a paid on-site mentor, 2) Master Teacher coaching visits, 3) professional development and 4) Alumni meetings, all complementing the induction support of the district and school. The project's research and evaluation activities seek to understand how to recruit and prepare future science and mathematics teachers to be effective in the highest needs schools, how to support their induction into these schools, and how the Scholar's classroom practice progresses over the project. The project will also investigate the development of teacher identity and critical agency for teaching during both the Scholarship and induction phases of Noyce Scholars careers. Thus, the project will generate critical insight into best practices for how to prepare preservice teachers to serve in diverse, urban schools.