Turning the Tide: Teaching Mathematics in High-Need Schools

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The project aims to serve the national need of preparing high-quality mathematics teachers to teach in rural, small town, and urban high-need school districts. The project will take a grow-your-own linear approach that spans from local high schools to area community colleges to a four-year institution. A recruiting focus will be on positively influencing high school students to join the mathematics teaching profession by educating them on the benefits and rewards of teaching. After high school, the education pathway for students will begin at a two-year college. After completing a community college degree, participants will transfer to a mathematics major and pre-service teacher program at a four-year college, where they will gain teacher licensure. Upon graduation with a baccalaureate degree, they will return to high-need schools as mathematics teachers. To prepare undergraduate students for the teaching profession, the project will incorporate a three-pronged immersion model. (1) Students will receive enhanced mathematics education coursework, mentoring, and dual advising from STEM and STEM education faculty. (2) They also will have special field experiences through a residency model beginning in community college. (3) The project will facilitate professional development opportunities to develop participants’ professional identities as teachers prepared to succeed in high-need schools. Overall, the project aims to increase the number of STEM graduates prepared to teach mathematics in high-need schools and address the mathematics teacher shortage in central Pennsylvania and across the United States.This project at Shippensburg University includes partnerships with Harrisburg Area Community College and Hagerstown Community College, along with five high-need local education agencies (LEAs) with high teacher turnover rates; namely, Carlisle, Chambersburg, Steelton-Highspire, Upper Dauphin, and Waynesboro. The project has two underlying goals. First is to recruit, provide scholarships, prepare, and graduate thirty (30) highly qualified mathematics teachers within the five-year duration of the project. A second goal is to place these new teachers in high-need schools, primarily in the central Pennsylvania area. The project will be informed by the theoretical basis of a grow-your-own teacher model in which young students who are interested in becoming teachers are fostered and supported. In concert with this, the project will build on residency models of teacher practicums, in which students who remain in one school for three years have been shown to improve teacher effectiveness and retention in high-need schools. Mixed-methods project evaluation will explore the effectiveness of programmatic components, ranging from recruiting high school students to graduation and placement in high-need school settings. Lines of investigation on the project's immersion model will generate new knowledge and fill gaps in the literature by testing methods to influence the effectiveness of: the grow-your-own theoretical framework and interorganizational pathway; the efficacy of preparing preservice teachers for high-need classrooms through community building, content mastery, service learning, and increased field experiences; and early and ongoing mentorship for novice teachers. Through publications and regional and national meetings, the project team will disseminate evidence collected to inform other higher education professionals seeking to improve teacher preparation and placement programs. This Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends 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.