Building Capacity to Recruit and Prepare High-Quality Secondary STEM Educators in Kentucky

该项目旨在满足全国对中学高素质生物和数学教师的需求。特别是，该项目将解决肯塔基州农村地区中学STEM教师短缺的问题。这将通过联合STEM教职员工和教育教职员工合作改进STEM课程并使课程内容符合国家教师认证标准来实现。此外，该项目将从大学生那里收集关于他们对教师职业的兴趣的证据，并利用这些信息来改进对未来中学STEM教师的招聘。此外，该项目将探索建立一个新的文科硕士(MAT)项目的可行性，该项目可以为中学STEM教师职业生涯提供研究生教育途径。林赛·威尔逊学院的这个能力建设项目包括与萨默塞特社区学院和两个高需求的当地学区-罗素县学校和阿代尔县学校-的合作伙伴关系，这将为未来的Noyce Track 1：奖学金和津贴提案奠定基础。该项目的目标是：1)改善STEM和教育系之间的协调；2)收集证据并制定新的战略，以增加未来中学STEM教师的入学人数；以及3)确定新的STEM教学硕士研究生计划的可行性。为了实现这些目标，校区将成立新的STEM教育课程委员会，在STEM和教育教职员工之间架起关键的桥梁。STEM教师将致力于将教师实践科目评估作为一种新的方法，指导对36门STEM内容课程的真实修订，为该地区培养高素质的未来中学STEM教师。此外，该项目还将从学生那里收集证据，为招收STEM专业本科生、当地社区学院转学学生和当地高中生进入中学STEM教师职业生涯提供信息和改进材料。该项目将把招聘材料翻译成西班牙语，并专门为拉美裔和拉丁裔学生开展外联活动，与该地区的中学生人口相比，他们在教师队伍中的比例目前偏低。除了努力从本科生中吸引未来的STEM教师外，还将与一名经验丰富的外部顾问签约，分析开发文科教学硕士课程的可行性，该课程将使学生能够进入STEM的研究生教学生涯。项目评估将由一个咨询委员会领导，该委员会由来自校园、当地学区和合作伙伴社区学院的利益攸关方组成。除了建设在该地区招聘新的中等STEM教育工作者的能力外，该项目还将深入了解STEM和教育系如何合作修订本科STEM课程，使其与国家认证标准保持一致，并更好地培养高效的中等STEM教师。该能力建设项目由罗伯特·诺伊斯教师奖学金计划(NOYCE)提供支持。Noyce计划支持有才华的STEM本科专业和专业人员成为有效的K-12 STEM教师，并支持经验丰富、模范的K-12教师成为高需求学区的STEM硕士教师。它还支持对高需求学区K-12 STEM教师的留任和有效性的研究。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The project aims to serve the national need for highly qualified biology and mathematics teachers in secondary schools. In particular, the project will address the secondary STEM teacher shortage in rural Kentucky. This will be accomplished by bringing together STEM faculty and Education faculty to collaborate on improving STEM courses and aligning course content with state teacher certification standards. Additionally, the project will collect evidence from college students about their interests in teaching careers and use this information to improve recruitment of future secondary STEM teachers. Further, the project will explore the feasibility of building a new Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program that could provide a graduate education pathway to secondary STEM teaching careers.This Capacity Building project at Lindsey Wilson College includes partnerships with Somerset Community College and two high-need local school districts – Russell County Schools and Adair County Schools – that will lay the groundwork for a future Noyce Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends proposal. The project goals are to: 1) improve coordination among STEM and Education faculty; 2) collect evidence and develop new strategies to increase enrollment of future secondary STEM teachers; and 3) determine feasibility of a new Master of Arts in STEM Teaching graduate program. To accomplish these goals, the campus will establish a new STEM Education Curriculum Committee to build key bridges between STEM and Education faculty. STEM faculty will be engaged in taking the PRAXIS subject assessments for teachers as a novel approach to guide authentic revision of 36 STEM content courses to produce highly qualified future secondary STEM teachers for the region. Additionally, the project will collect evidence from students to inform and improve materials to recruit undergraduate STEM majors, local community college transfer students, and local high school students to secondary STEM teaching careers. The project will translate recruitment materials into Spanish and conduct outreach specifically to reach Hispanic and Latino students, who are currently underrepresented in the teacher workforce compared to secondary student populations in the region. An experienced, external consultant will be contracted to analyze the feasibility of developing a Master of Arts in Teaching program that could enable entry to STEM teaching careers at the graduate level, in addition to efforts to attract future STEM teachers from undergraduate student populations. Project evaluation will be led by an Advisory Committee composed of stakeholders from the campus, the local school districts, and the partner community college. In addition to building capacity to recruit new secondary STEM educators in the region, the project will produce insights into how STEM and Education faculty can collaborate to revise undergraduate STEM curricula such that they align with state certification standards and better prepare highly effective secondary STEM teachers. This Capacity Building project is supported through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (Noyce). The Noyce program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers and experienced, exemplary K-12 teachers to become STEM master teachers in high-need school districts. It also supports research on the retention and effectiveness of K-12 STEM teachers 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.