Western Regional Noyce Alliance

STEM教师的全国短缺仍然是一个现实。根据公共教育中心2016年的报告，“修补教师管道的漏洞：教师短缺概述”，STEM教师职位空缺仍然是全国最难填补的。少数族裔或低收入家庭学生比例较高的学校发现雇佣和留住STEM教师要困难得多（公共教育中心，2016）。美国国家科学基金会罗伯特·诺伊斯教师奖学金计划的首要目标是提高美国STEM教师的质量、多样性和数量，这些教师为在高需求学区吸引学生做好了充分准备。另一个关键需求是优秀的Noyce教师的持续参与，以支持他们坚持教学职业。为了继续实现这一目标，西部地区Noyce联盟（WRNA）建议为西部12个州的Noyce参与者提供四层专业成长机会。这些机会包括三个年度区域会议，18个区域网络研讨会，6个数学和暑期研究所，以及Noyce学者和研究员的研究经验。西部地区的州是加利福尼亚州、华盛顿州、俄勒冈州、内华达州、爱达荷州、亚利桑那州、新墨西哥州、科罗拉多州、犹他州、德克萨斯州、怀俄明州和蒙大拿州。该项目拟支持九所院校在三年时间内提供协调的专业发展。这些机构是旧金山州立大学（领头）、加州州立理工大学、加州州立大学弗雷斯诺分校、北亚利桑那大学、圣地亚哥州立大学、亚利桑那大学、波特兰大学、德克萨斯大学阿灵顿分校、怀俄明大学。在这个为期三年的项目中，世界自然资源协会会议预计将为约950名Noyce与会者提供服务。此外，该项目还计划通过暑期研习班招收150名Noyce教师，通过区域网络研讨会招收1200名参与者，并让另外9名Noyce参与者参与沉浸式暑期研究。随着越来越多的西部地区国家在其STEM课程中全面采用或纳入类似标准，预计WRNA将有助于增加该地区高需求学区未来STEM领导者的数量，这些领导者已做好充分准备，可以有效实施下一代科学标准和/或共同核心国家数学标准。Noyce的领导者将有更多的机会更好地了解Noyce在全国和地方的评估和研究工作。已经成功多年的Noyce项目将指导和支持较新的项目。随着时间的推移，这种努力可能有助于维持诺伊斯在每个西部地区校园的影响力，甚至超过奖项的生命周期。支持Noyce教师作为杰出的STEM专业人员的持续发展，期望帮助他们坚持担任课堂教师和教学领导者。预计WRNA的间接影响是，高需求学区的数十万名学生将从在STEM教育的新方向和令人兴奋的方向受过良好培训的教师那里接受高质量的STEM教育。此外，由美国研究所（AIR）和一名教育研究人员进行的强有力的项目评估的结果，有可能帮助其他STEM教育工作者提供有效的专业成长机会，以支持留住教学专业的优秀教师，特别是那些在高需求学区服务的教师。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A national shortage of STEM teachers is still a reality. According to 2016 report from the Center for Public Education, "Fixing the Holes in the Teacher Pipeline: An Overview of Teacher Shortages," STEM teaching vacancies remain the hardest to fill nationwide. Schools with a high percentage of minority or low-income students find it much more difficult to hire and retain STEM teachers (Center for Public Education, 2016). The overarching goal of the NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program is to increase the quality, diversity, and number of the nation's STEM teachers who are well prepared to engage students in high-need school districts. Another critical need is continued engagement of outstanding Noyce teachers to support them in persisting in the teaching profession. To continue to meet this goal, the Western Regional Noyce Alliance (WRNA) proposes to provide Noyce participants in twelve western states with four tiers of professional growth opportunities. These opportunities include three annual regional conferences, eighteen regional networking workshops, six mathematical and summer institutes, and research experiences for Noyce Scholars and Fellows. The states in the western region are California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Texas, Wyoming, and Montana. This project intends to support nine institutions to provide the coordinated professional development over three years. These institutions are San Francisco State University (as the lead), California Polytechnic State University, California State University-Fresno, Northern Arizona University, San Diego State University, the University of Arizona, the University of Portland, the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Wyoming. Over the three-year project, WRNA conferences are expected to serve about 950 Noyce participants. In addition, the project intends to reach 150 Noyce teachers through summer institutes and 1,200 participants through regional networking workshops, and to engage nine additional Noyce participants in immersive summer research. The WRNA is expected to help increase the number of future STEM leaders in the region's high-need school districts who are well-prepared to effectively implement the Next Generation Science Standards and/or the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics, as more Western Region states fully adopt or include similar standards in their STEM curricula. Noyce leaders will have more opportunities to gain a better understanding of Noyce evaluation and research efforts both nationally and locally. Noyce projects that have had years of success will mentor and support newer projects. This effort may help sustain Noyce influence at each of the western region campuses over time and beyond the lifetime of the award. Supporting the continued growth of Noyce teachers as outstanding STEM professionals is expected to assist in their persistence as classroom teachers and instructional leaders. The indirect impact of WRNA is expected to be that hundreds of thousands of students in high-need school districts will receive a high-quality STEM education from teachers who are well-trained in new and exciting directions in STEM education. Moreover, the findings from the robust project evaluation conducted by the American Institute of Research (AIR), along with an individual educational researcher, has the potential to assist other STEM educators to provide effective professional growth opportunities, in support of retaining outstanding teachers in the teaching profession, particularly in those serving in high-need school districts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.