STEM Teacher Effectiveness and Retention in High-Need Schools: Combining Equity & Ecological Frameworks

该项目旨在满足国家在高需求学区提高有效STEM教师保留率的需求。教师更替率上升导致教育成果下降，特别是在需求量大的学校。 提高STEM教师的保留率为科学和数学教师创造了条件，以发展他们的专业知识，并促进关系，这将加强学校的计划。该项目还旨在了解如何通过确定条件允许有色人种STEM教师留在课堂上的情况来增加种族多样的STEM教师的存在。该项目团队将检查大量的定量数据集，以跟踪康涅狄格州的STEM教师运动和教学效率。统计分析将通过与实践STEM教师的访谈来补充。这项研究有可能提高对STEM教师保留模式以及教师流动与教学有效性之间关系的理解。这项研究的结果有可能为学区决策和国家官方政策制定提供信息，推动数据驱动的干预措施的发展，这些干预措施侧重于STEM教师保留，以实现有效性和公平性。康涅狄格大学的这个项目有三个目标。第一个是发现学校因素与更大的教师保留和随后的教学效率密切相关。项目小组将通过对康涅狄格州收集的数据进行定量分析来实现这一目标，这是常规做法的一部分。第二个是检查教师身份（种族和性别）的交叉点，有助于STEM教师的保留和有效性，通过康涅狄格州每年收集的数据来衡量，以监测高素质的教学，教育工作者认证和学校人员配备。第三是对不同人口统计学特征的STEM实践教师进行迭代访谈（即，白色，黑人，拉丁裔和亚洲），以寻求他们对影响STEM教师保留，学校之间的运动和有效性的力量的观点。计划小组亦会采用参与式设计研究的方法，定期向这些教师提供最新的统计结果，以征询他们的意见和建议。通过这种方式，整个项目的对话周期将有助于完善定量分析。整体的研究将从三个理论框架：资源保护，目标一致性和社会政治意识。多层次分析将确定与留住有效的STEM教师相关的因素。图论技术将评估运动，包括匹配对的社会网络分析，以评估相关因素的影响。该研究项目有可能提供建议，以提高STEM教师的保留率，并在高需求学区推进高质量的STEM教学。这个轨道4：诺伊斯研究项目是通过罗伯特诺伊斯教师奖学金计划（诺伊斯）的支持。诺伊斯计划支持STEM本科专业和专业人士成为有效的K-12 STEM教师和经验丰富的K-12教师，成为高需求学区的STEM领导者。它还支持对高需求学区的K-12 STEM教师的有效性和保留的研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并且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。

This project aims to serve the national need to improve the retention of effective STEM teachers in high need school districts. Elevated rates of turnover of teachers contribute to lowered educational outcomes, particularly for high-need schools. Improving STEM teacher retention creates conditions for science and mathematics teachers to develop their expertise and foster relationships that will strengthen school programs. The project also seeks to understand how to increase the presence of racially diverse STEM teachers by identifying cases where conditions allow STEM teachers of color to remain in the classroom. The project team will examine large quantitative data sets to track STEM teacher movement and instructional effectiveness in the state of Connecticut. Statistical analyses will be complemented by interviews with practicing STEM teachers. This research has the potential to improve understanding of STEM teacher retention patterns and the relationships between teacher movement and instructional effectiveness. The results of this study have the potential to inform school district decision-making and state official policy-shaping, driving the development of data-driven interventions focused on STEM teacher retention in the service of effectiveness and equity. This project at the University of Connecticut has three goals. The first is to uncover school factors strongly associated with greater teacher retention and subsequent teaching effectiveness. The project team will achieve this goal via quantitative analyses of data collected by the state of Connecticut as part of routine practices. The second is to examine intersections of teacher identity (race and gender) contributing to STEM teacher retention and effectiveness as measured by data collected annually by the state of Connecticut to monitor highly qualified teaching, educator certification, and school staffing. The third is to conduct iterative interviews with practicing STEM teachers of various demographics (i.e., White, Black, Latinx, and Asian) to seek their perspectives about forces influencing STEM teacher retention, movement between schools, and effectiveness. Using a participatory design research approach, the project team will also provide periodic updates of the study’s statistical outputs to these teachers to solicit their interpretations and recommendations. In this way conversational cycles throughout the project will help to refine the quantitative analyses. The overall investigation will draw from three theoretical frames: conservation of resources, goal congruity, and sociopolitical consciousness. Multilevel analyses will identify factors associated with the retention of effective STEM teachers. Graph theory techniques will assess movement, including a social network analysis of matched pairs to assess impact of relevant factors. This research project has the potential to provide recommendations to improve STEM teacher retention and advance high-quality STEM instruction in high need school districts. This Track 4: Noyce Research project is supported through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (Noyce). The Noyce program supports STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers and experienced K-12 teachers to become STEM leaders 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.