Preparing STEM Professionals to Teach in High Needs Urban School Districts Using the Whole Teacher Support Model

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This project aims to serve the national need for improving recruitment, preparation, and retention of highly effective K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts. The project will provide scholarships to sixty-five (65) talented STEM professionals who have undergraduate degrees with majors in biology, chemistry, or mathematics and intend to become secondary STEM teachers. Candidates will complete a Master of Education (MEd) program in sixteen (16) months leading to a sophisticated skillset and STEM teacher certification followed by an induction process consisting of four additional years. Teacher preparation and induction will feature coaching and mentoring with a focus on STEM content, integrated STEM pedagogy, social and environmental justice, experiential learning, social and emotional learning, and teacher well-being. An important feature of the project will be the implementation of a Whole Teacher Support Model which encompasses a holistic and customized approach to support project participants to develop dispositions and practices for healthy and balanced professional lives. This, in turn, will enable high-need schools in the Baltimore vicinity and other areas across the nation to provide their students a strong and inclusive STEM education, which will help provide a background and direction for many of these students to be prepared for the STEM workforce.This project is housed at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and leverages a partnership with the Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS). The project will be guided by several goals. First, over a duration of five years, the project will recruit, provide scholarships, and prepare a diverse set of sixty-five (65) high-quality students, who hold undergraduate degrees in biology, chemistry, or mathematics, to become teachers in high-need schools in the Baltimore area. For a second goal, the project will implement, study, modify as appropriate, and disseminate a Whole Teacher Support Model approach to teacher well-being and social and emotional learning. A third goal is to provide Noyce Scholars with strong STEM content knowledge through discipline coursework and induction coaching and mentoring. Goal four is to instill pedagogical content knowledge that includes applications of technologies, an innovative education curriculum, and an emphasis on equity and social justice. An underlying thread through the activities will be an emphasis on culturally responsive pedagogies. Throughout the project, participants will receive individualized support to reach professional goals that include National Board Certification, improved student achievement, retention, coursework that addresses pressing issues facing education today, experiential learning, and school leadership and professionalism. Qualitative and quantitative evaluation design will include both formative and summative foci for providing continuous and timely feedback on implementation processes and outcomes. Project team members and evaluators will disseminate outcomes and project models through publications, conference and workshop presentations, and intentional exchanges with K-12 decision and policy makers. 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.