CAREER: Examining the Supply, Qualifications, and Career Paths of STEM Teachers

STEM教师在塑造学生的STEM学习经历和愿望方面发挥着重要作用。这项职业研究有几个广泛的影响-国家政策，国家和地方招聘策略，以及学生获得教育机会。在这个职业奖的过程中，首席研究员（PI）将仔细调查STEM教师队伍，并审查对STEM教学感兴趣的教师候选人的资格，直至最终成为教师的职业道路。在此过程中，该项目研究了STEM教师的供应如何随着时间的推移而变化，供应是否足以满足不断变化的国家的需求，STEM教师的资格和证书，以及STEM教师职业道路对公平和服务高需求环境和学生的影响。PI将使用国家层面的多个现有数据集以及堪萨斯州的数据来支持国家和地方的推断。该项目通过几种新颖而重要的方式检查STEM教师，为STEM管道研究做出了贡献。使用回归和多层次回归分析，PI将检查早期STEM教师管道，对STEM教学感兴趣的本科生和研究生。其次，PI将使用最新的全国代表性数据，提供有关STEM教师资格、证书、离职意向和实际离职的最新调查。第三，PI将探讨STEM教师的资格、证书、离职意向和实际离职率在大衰退和COVID-19大流行期间在国家层面发生了怎样的变化。第四，使用来自堪萨斯州的纵向管理数据，PI将在经常被忽视的背景下，一个来自中西部的州和一个拥有大片农村地区的州，检查STEM教师。第五，PI将考虑STEM教师从一所学校转到另一所学校的职业道路或流动性，以及STEM教师转到的学校的特点。这是一项教师早期职业发展计划（Career）提案，响应计划征求NSF 22-586，由发现研究PreK-12计划联合资助，旨在通过研究和开发STEM教育创新和方法，以及NSF EDU核心研究（ECR）计划，显着提高PreK-12学生和教师对科学，技术，工程，数学和计算机科学（STEM）的学习和教学。ECR项目强调在该领域产生基础知识的基础STEM教育研究。投资在至关重要、广泛和持久的关键领域：STEM学习和STEM学习环境，扩大STEM参与，以及STEM劳动力发展。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。

STEM teachers play instrumental roles in shaping students' STEM learning experiences and aspirations. This CAREER research has several broad impacts - national policy, national and local recruitment strategies, and student access to educational opportunities. In the course of this CAREER award the principal investigator (PI) will carefully investigate the STEM teacher pipeline, and examine qualifications from teacher candidates who express interest in teaching STEM through to the eventual career paths of teachers in the workforce. In doing so, the project examines how the supply of STEM teachers has changed over time, whether the supply is adequate in meeting the needs of a changing nation, the qualifications and credentials of STEM teachers, and the implications of the STEM teacher career paths for equity and serving high needs contexts and students. The PI will use multiple extant data sets at the national level as well as data from the State of Kansas to support both national and local inferences.The project contributes to the STEM pipeline research by examining STEM teachers in several novel and important ways. Using regression and multi-level regression analyses, the PI will examine the early STEM teacher pipeline, undergraduate and graduate students who express an interest in STEM teaching. Second, the PI will provide the most current investigation into STEM teacher qualifications, credentials, turnover intentions, and actual turnover using up-to-date nationally representative data. Third, the PI will explore how STEM teacher qualifications, credentials, turnover intentions, and actual turnover have changed at the national level due to the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. Fourth, using longitudinal administrative data from Kansas, the PI will examine STEM teachers in often-neglected contexts, a state from the Midwest and a state with large rural areas. Fifth, the PI will consider the career paths or mobility of STEM teachers who switch from one school to another and the characteristics of the schools where STEM teachers move to. This is a Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) proposal responsive to Program Solicitation NSF 22-586 and funded jointly by the Discovery Research PreK-12 program, which seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and computer science (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of STEM education innovations and approaches, and NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad, and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.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.