Pathway to Mathematics II: An Integrated STEM Initiative Focused on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

该项目旨在服务于国家对准备充分、高效的数学教师的需求。目前，缺乏认证的数学教师导致高危学生的成绩和期望较低，特别是在教室人满为患的农村和城市地区，个人在认证领域外授课，以及缺乏STEM背景的长期代课教师。该项目计划在五年内招聘和培养20名高素质的数学教师。作为最初的数学之路项目的延续，它还将涉及到先前项目产生的教师，并使其受益。当前项目的一个重点将是通过广泛的招聘活动，吸引来自相关学科的不同种族和民族的STEM专业学生，如数学和工程学。该项目的一个标志将是其入驻前的体验，允许未来的教师在成为学者之前观察并参与指导教师。学者将获得数学教育硕士学位，完成教学教育学和数学内容的研究生课程。这个项目由南阿拉巴马大学教育和专业研究学院以及艺术和科学与工程学院组成，包括与莫比尔县公立学校系统的合作伙伴关系。目标包括：1)产生吸引STEM专业学生成为数学教师的因素的知识，以及2)让当前STEM专业的学生和专业人员参加课程，以提供对所有学生，特别是当地高中需要的学区的学生有益的广泛的教学经验。该项目的智力价值来自于它有能力培养出留住专业的数学教师，同时评估从中学开始采用STEM综合方法教授数学的效果。对于该项目更广泛的影响，预计通过课程作业、夏季STEM和多样性研究所、研讨会、身临其境的实地考察和侧重于与文化相关的教育学和多样性教育的研讨会，以及通过与初中生和高中生的真实个人联系，学者们将毕业时拥有满足他们将服务的人群中的学生的学术、社会和心理需求所需的工具和性格。这个轨道1：奖学金和津贴项目是由罗伯特·诺伊斯奖学金计划(Noyce)支持的。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教师的有效性和留住的研究。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。

This project aims to serve the national need for well-prepared and highly effective mathematics teachers. Currently, the lack of certified mathematics teachers contributes to lower achievement and expectations for high-risk students, especially in rural and urban areas that have overpopulated classrooms, individuals teaching outside their certification fields, and long-term substitute teachers lacking STEM backgrounds. This project intends to recruit and prepare 20 high quality mathematics teachers over a five year period. As a continuation of the original Pathway to Mathematics project, it will also involve and benefit teachers produced by that prior project. A focus of the current project will be attracting racially and ethnically diverse STEM majors from related disciplines, such as mathematics and engineering, through an extensive recruitment campaign. A hallmark of the project will be its pre-residency experience, allowing prospective teachers to observe and participate with mentor teachers prior to becoming scholars. Scholars will graduate with a master’s degree in mathematics education, completing graduate coursework in both teaching pedagogy and mathematics content.This project of the University of South Alabama College of Education and Professional Studies and the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Engineering includes a partnership with the Mobile County Public School System. Goals include: 1) generating knowledge of factors that attract STEM majors to careers as mathematics teachers, and 2) engaging current STEM majors and professionals in a curriculum designed to provide a wide spectrum of teaching experiences beneficial to all students, especially those in local high-need school districts. The intellectual merit of this project derives from its capacity to produce mathematics teachers who stay in the profession while evaluating effects of an integrated STEM approach to teaching mathematics starting in the middle grades. Towards the project's broader impacts it is anticipated that through coursework, a Summer STEM and Diversity Institute, seminars, immersive field trips, and workshops focused in culturally relevant pedagogy and diversity education, and through real life personal connections with middle and high school students, scholars will graduate with the tools and dispositions needed to meet the academic, social, and psychological needs of students in the population they will serve. This Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends project is supported through the Robert Noyce 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.