Utilizing Wrap Around Mentorship and Virtual Reality to Prepare and Sustain STEM Teachers in Rural High-Need Schools

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The project aims to serve the national need of increasing and retaining STEM teachers who have cutting-edge pedagogical skills, content knowledge, and dispositions required to teach in rural, high-need classrooms. West Virginia schools have difficulty filling teaching vacancies in STEM fields. The proposed project will provide insight into the successful recruitment, preparation, and retention of STEM professionals who have chosen to pursue a career in STEM education. One-third of teachers in WV leave the field within their first four years on the job. Such challenges have impacted student performance resulting in extremely low math and science proficiency scores. It is estimated ~9,600 rural P-12 students could be directly impacted through the duration of this project. To achieve the project’s objectives, Concord University (CU) will deliver an online Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) curriculum, implement a comprehensive wrap around mentorship program utilizing a virtual platform to connect a multidisciplinary team of mentors with the TFs, develop and maintain a Professional Learning Community (PLC), and incorporate the use of Virtual Reality (VR) technology within the MAT curriculum. Furthermore, CU will utilize the virtual platform as well as data management software for ongoing mentoring and tracking of TFs as they fill STEM teaching positions in rural high-need P-12 schools.This project at Concord University includes partnerships with Mercer, McDowell, and Summers County Schools, SIBME, and the West Virginia Science Teachers Association. Project goals include (1) recruit and advance 16 STEM professionals as Teaching Fellows (TFs) to become STEM educators within rural, high-need schools and (2) provide comprehensive mentoring and supports to TFs to ensure persistence and retention through their MAT program and induction. The project will incorporate cutting-edge technology for TFs and P-12 student in rural high-need schools and establish effective methods for supporting TFs hired in STEM teaching positions. The work will be evaluated by Brockport Research Institute. The evaluation will include mixed method quantitative and qualitative analyses of data collected from surveys, interviews, extant data, and document review. The project team will disseminate project outcomes and findings on a project website and at regional and national conferences. An emphasis will be placed on sharing key lessons learned, incorporating the use of VR in the classroom, and sharing the project blueprint to assist other districts dealing with similar challenges. This Track 2: Teaching Fellowships 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.