Creating Pathways: Building the Region's Capacity to Address the STEM Teacher Shortage

圣玛丽大学的Noyce能力建设项目旨在通过增加当地潜在的中级STEM教师候选人来解决全国合格STEM教师短缺的问题。项目合作伙伴将包括三个高需求学区、两所社区学院和堪萨斯城大都市区的莱文沃思堡军事基地。通过这些合作伙伴关系，该项目将实施一项四管齐下的招聘战略，以加强进入STEM教学的途径。当地高中和社区大学的学生也可以参加“衔接课程”；圣玛丽大学STEM专业本科学生，之前没有考虑过将教学作为职业；第二职业寻求者/转行者，包括军事分支机构。该项目将纳入旨在吸引女性和未被充分代表的少数民族成为STEM教师的战略。这样的努力有可能使追求科学事业的本科生人数多样化。期望是，有更多高素质和多样化的STEM教师，地区学生将更有可能从事STEM职业。对STEM兴趣的这种增加有可能促进当地和区域经济，这与该国的全球竞争力有关。项目团队将传播评估结果，与其他教育机构和社区分享关键发现，这些机构和社区寻求在教师短缺对贫困儿童和有色人种儿童影响更大的学校和地区吸引和培养高质量、多样化的STEM教师。该项目旨在实现以下目标：(1)创建一个将高中学生引入教学作为职业选择的过程；(2)改善学生从社区学院转入圣玛丽大学STEM专业和中学教学证书课程的途径；(3)增加圣玛丽大学主修STEM学科并同时参加中学教师认证计划的学生人数；(4)发展与军方有联系的候选人/转行者进行持续外展的能力。项目成果有可能促进以下方面的知识和理解：(1)如何招募传统上难以接触到的人群，如与军方有联系的个人；（ii）如何利用现有的伙伴关系，包括与学区、社区学院和军事基地的伙伴关系；以及（ii）吸引STEM学生和毕业生从事教学职业的特别有效的策略。研究结果将与许多寻求吸引更多高素质候选人进入STEM教师教育的社区和教育机构相关。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。

This Noyce Capacity Building project at the University of St. Mary aims to address the well-documented national shortage of qualified STEM teachers by increasing the local pool of potential secondary STEM teacher candidates. Project partners will include three high-need school districts, two community colleges, and Ft. Leavenworth military base in the Kansas City metropolitan area. With these partnerships, the project will implement a four-pronged recruitment strategy that will enhance pathways into STEM teaching. Pathways will be available for students from local high schools and community colleges; undergraduate STEM majors at the University of St. Mary who have not previously considered teaching as a career; and second career seekers/career changers, including military affiliates. The project will incorporate strategies aimed at attracting women and underrepresented minorities to become STEM teachers. Such efforts have the potential to diversify the population of undergraduates who pursue science careers. The expectation is that, with more highly qualified and diverse STEM teachers, area students will be more likely to pursue careers in STEM. Such an increase in STEM interest has the potential to boost local and regional economies, which is relevant to the country's global competitiveness. The project team will disseminate evaluation results, sharing key findings with other educational institutions and communities that seek to attract and prepare high-quality, diverse STEM teachers in schools and districts where the teacher shortages more acutely affect poor children and children of color. The project aims to accomplish the following objectives: (1) create a process for introducing high school students to teaching as a career option; (2) improve pathways for students transferring from community colleges into the University of St. Mary STEM majors and secondary teaching certificate programs; (3) increase the number of University of St. Mary students who major in a STEM discipline and concurrently enroll in the secondary teacher certification program; and (4) develop the capacity for ongoing outreach to military-connected candidates/career changers. Project results have the potential to advance knowledge and understanding of (i) how to recruit traditionally hard-to-reach populations, such as military-connected individuals; (ii) how to leverage existing partnerships, including those with school districts, community colleges, and military bases; and (ii) strategies that are particularly effective in attracting STEM students and graduates to careers in teaching. Findings will be relevant for many communities and educational institutions seeking to attract more highly qualified candidates into STEM teacher education.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.