Recruiting and Supporting a Diverse Pool of Highly-Qualified STEM Teachers through Communities of Practice and Informal Science Internships

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This project aims to serve the national need for highly-qualified and diverse teachers of Mathematics, Science, and Computer Science. The nation faces significant disparity in the percentage of STEM teachers who mirror the percentage of students from diverse backgrounds they serve in their classrooms. This is important because studies show improved academic performance among students whose identities are represented in their schools. This project will implement and evaluate the impact of several features, including 1) early exposure to teaching experiences in informal and tutoring settings; 2) integration of prospective STEM teachers into a range of initiatives, and 3) intensive mentoring from accomplished STEM teachers who serve in schools with high percentages of students from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM disciplines. The expected outcome is an increased number of highly-qualified and diverse secondary STEM teachers.This project at the University of Houston-Clear Lake includes partnerships with eight high-need independent school districts (Channelview, Dickenson, Goose Creek Consolidated, Hitchcock, Humble, Pasadena, Spring Branch, and Texas City), four community colleges (San Jacinto College, Alvin Community College, College of the Mainland, Galveston Community College), and four STEM organizations (Armand Bayou Nature Center, Children's Environmental Literacy Foundation, Environmental Institute of Houston, and Lunar and Planetary Institute). Project goals include 1) recruiting a diverse pool of 24 undergraduate mathematics, science, and computer science majors to the teaching profession, 2) increasing prospective STEM teachers' content mastery and pedagogical skills, and 3) enhancing new STEM teachers' retention and success in the teaching profession. Through lenses of financial support, academic support and enrichment, and social and career support, the project will explore two research questions: 1) How does scholarship support increase motivation to pursue STEM education careers? and 2) How does scholarship support increase student success? Data from this project, collected in the course of project evaluation, will increase knowledge of effective and replicable strategies to attract STEM majors to secondary STEM teaching careers and to improve effectiveness of secondary STEM teachers. These assessments will help inform how STEM pedagogy/content-rich experiences impact future STEM teachers' confidence to teach STEM and their effectiveness as STEM educators in high-need schools, including those with a significant number of English-language learners. Through both quantitative and qualitative measures, the internal evaluation will focus on examination of benefits to program participants, including academic success measures and future career plans. Both formative and summative evaluation of the project will use a concurrent mixed-methods approach, with program progress indicators and a feedback loop to inform program effectiveness. Results will be disseminated through a wide variety of media, including conferences, publications, presentations, and a project website. 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 effectiveness and retention 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.