Closing the Loop: From Student to STEM Teacher for Idaho Schools

在美国国家科学基金会罗伯特·诺伊斯教师奖学金项目的资助下，“闭环：从学生到STEM教师”爱达荷州学校将招募STEM专业的本科学生，并为他们成为高需求农村学区6-12年级的STEM教师做好准备。这个Track 1项目的目标是在五年内资助65个奖学金。在这个项目中，博伊西州立大学将与考德威尔、杰罗姆、金伯利、库纳和瓦莱维学区合作，确定、招募并支持有兴趣从事STEM教学事业的学生。在学生学习的前两年，支持的机会包括校园生活和学习社区以及学生家庭社区的STEM教育暑期实习。学生将完成博伊西州立大学的四年制学士学位/ STEM学科认证课程（IDoTeach）。除了在他们最后两年的学习中提供奖学金支持外，该项目还将通过一个培训计划帮助他们过渡到STEM教学职业，该计划将帮助新教师成为教师领导者。该项目旨在帮助教师在进入教师行业时，了解限制各类学生获得公平教育的系统性障碍，从而更好地倡导日益多样化的社区的利益和需求。该提案的优点在于努力提高爱达荷州中学STEM教师的数量和质量。与这些努力同时进行的目标是确定支持增加教师人数的机制，特别是满足偏远农村地区的需要。这一提议背后的行动理论是，在招聘、实习安排、准备和持续支持方面对学生地理的明确关注将形成一个循环：学生将从农村社区招募，准备在其中教学，并最终被聘为其家乡的STEM教育工作者。项目评估将确定影响农村学区教师数量的招聘、准备和保留工作的特点。研究结果有可能为招聘和培养高素质STEM教师到农村和高需求学校任教提供有效策略的重要信息。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。

With funding from the National Science Foundation's Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program, Closing the Loop: From Student to STEM Teacher for Idaho Schools will recruit undergraduate STEM majors and prepare them to become grade 6-12 STEM teachers in high-need, rural school districts. This Track 1 project aims to fund 65 scholarships over five years. In this project, Boise State University will collaborate with Caldwell, Jerome, Kimberly, Kuna, and Vallivue school districts to identify, recruit, and then support students interested in pursuing STEM teaching careers. During students' first two years of study, opportunities for support include an on-campus Living and Learning Community and STEM education summer internships in students' home communities. Students will complete Boise State University's four-year BS/certification program for the STEM disciplines (IDoTeach). In addition to scholarship support in their last two years of study, the project will support their transition into STEM teaching careers with an induction program that prepares new teachers to be teacher-leaders. This project aims to prepare teachers to enter the profession with knowledge of the systemic barriers that limit equitable instruction for a range of students, so that they are better advocate for the interests and needs of their increasingly diverse communities.This proposal's merits lie in its efforts to increase the number and quality of STEM teachers for Idaho's secondary schools. Concomitant with these efforts is the goal to identify mechanisms that support an increase in the number of teachers, particularly with respect to the needs of rural, isolated districts. The theory of action behind this proposal is that explicit attention to students' geography in recruitment, internship placement, preparation, and ongoing support will close a loop: Students will be recruited from, prepared to teach within, and ultimately hired to serve as STEM educators for their rural home communities. Program evaluation will identify features of the recruitment, preparation and retention efforts that impact the number of teachers in rural school districts. The findings have the potential to provide important information about effective strategies for recruiting and preparing highly qualified STEM teachers to teach in rural and high-needs schools.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.