Producing STEM Teachers for Urban and Rural Schools in Kentucky

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The overarching goal of this Noyce Track 1 Scholars project is to serve as a sustainable regional and national model for the pre-service STEM education community in addressing the twin challenges of training STEM teachers for both rural and urban high-needs settings. The University of Kentucky is partnering with the Fayette County Public School to accomplish the project objectives, which include: (1) attract more diverse candidates to STEM teaching pathways, (2) strengthen collaborations between the College of Education and the Colleges of Arts & Sciences and Engineering to support a dual degree program in STEM education and a STEM discipline, (3) institutionalize wide-ranging support services to ensure student retention and success across the dual degrees, (4) increase the number of STEM education graduates, and (5) prepare STEM teachers in culturally responsive teaching and with strong content knowledge, including how to integrate energy and manufacturing challenges in the curriculum. The project aims to achieve these objectives through a three-pronged approach: (1) Recruiting--using a multi-faceted approach that will include promotion of a viral(readily accessible, engaging online) video, development of postcard brochures, social media ads, and collaborations with teacher pathway programs across the state; (2) Collaboration--staff and faculty across the three collaborating colleges will work together to provide candidates with support aimed at supporting the highest possible retention rates; and (3) Professional learning--academic year and summer professional learning opportunities will be provided to candidates while they are in the program and after they have gone into their own classrooms. The specific focus on underrepresented populations--both minority candidates and first-generation Appalachian candidates--will allow this project to align candidate placement with the demographics of either urban or rural school settings, enabling the new teachers to serve as models for success in STEM disciplines.This Noyce Track 1 Scholars project is designed to recruit 34 candidates (majors in any of the STEM disciplines) into STEM teaching careers. The goal is for 25% of those candidates to be in one or more of the following under-represented populations: (a) student of color; (b) first generation student as identified by the University of Kentucky?s definition; (c) student with a disability; and/or (d) student from Appalachia. Those candidates will be prepared to teach mathematics, science (biology, chemistry, physics, earth science) and computer science in high-needs secondary schools. Candidates will be afforded unique professional learning experiences within the program, such as work in informal STEM learning settings (e.g., the University of Kentucky SeeBlue STEM camp), industry externships (in partnership with Kentucky Advanced Manufacturing, KAM), and summer retreats with sessions focused on Common Cores State Standards in Mathematics or the Next Generation Science Standards. These experiences will be aligned with appropriate pedagogical approaches and real-world applications of content, including energy (in association with the Center for Applied Energy Research) and manufacturing (in association with KAM). Preparing candidates who can meet the needs of both rural and urban high-needs schools, meeting the increasing demand for qualified computer science teachers, and developing an undergraduate teacher preparation program with unique features such as informal STEM learning and industry externship experiences will be the most salient benefits of this project to STEM education in the United States.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.