Developing STEM Professionals as Educators and Teacher Leaders

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With support from the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (Noyce), this Track 2: Teaching Fellowships project at Georgia State University focuses on the national shortages of STEM teachers and low retention rates in the teacher workforce. It will recruit 30 STEM professionals, who have STEM baccalaureate degrees, and support them to complete a 14-month Master of Arts in Teaching degree. These graduates will become certified to teach science or mathematics in middle or high school and will teach in high-need schools in the partnering Fulton County Schools and Rockdale County Public Schools. These teacher leaders are expected to have positive impacts across the districts, leading to greater interest in STEM and STEM careers for diverse groups of students. The project includes a research plan to examine strategies for addressing the critical shortage of highly qualified STEM teachers in urban schools, especially Black and Latino males.The project will be grounded in a Research-Practice Partnership framework to inform the nature of the relationships between the university, school districts (Fulton County Schools and Rockdale Public Schools), and the partnering local nonprofit organization, 100 Black Men of South Metro. The research plan includes a longitudinal research component to explore the effectiveness of the Research-Practice Partnership in meeting the needs of partnering school districts. It also includes a mixed methods research design to explore the impact of the Research-Practice Partnership on the recruitment and retention of STEM teachers and their development into teacher leaders. The project will include robust mentoring of participants, beginning in the master's program of study and continuing through induction and teacher leadership development, and will emphasize the importance of cultural diversity in teachers' professional development. The project's collaborative efforts will provide opportunities to share best practices and resources across institutions of higher education, K-12 institutions, and nonprofit organizations, thus broadening the potential impact of the project. The Noyce program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts and experienced, exemplary K-12 STEM teachers to become STEM expert teachers. It also supports research on the persistence, retention, and effectiveness of K-12 STEM teachers in hi-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.