Sustaining and Evaluating STEM Teacher Quality and Retention at Cal Teach Berkeley

通过罗伯特·诺伊斯奖学金计划的资助，这个Track 1阶段2项目将满足国家对提高科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)K-12教师队伍的质量、数量和多样性的既定和日益增长的需求。加州大学伯克利分校(加州大学伯克利分校)的计划将：(1)在其现有的和扩大的Cal Teach计划的基础上，支持本科生攻读STEM学科学位以及在城市学校教授数学和科学方面的证书；(2)利用与加州大学默塞德分校(UC Merced)的新合作，在两个校园为STEM本科生提供教育课程和活动，并在加州大学伯克利分校提供数学或科学二级教学证书；以及(3)通过与当地学区(伯克利、奥克兰联合大学和默塞德市)以及与当地研究和推广机构(如劳伦斯科学堂和查博特空间和科学中心)建立牢固的现有伙伴关系，加强总体努力和活动。该项目将通过每年向十二(12)名低年级本科生提供实习机会，让这些学生参与研究、专业发展和与外展合作伙伴的互动，以及(B)每年向参加加州教学计划的九(9)名高年级学生提供奖学金，从而支持超过一百(100)名学生。这些奖学金将在加州大学伯克利分校和加州大学默塞德分校的STEM学科中非常引人注目，并将被确定为反映学生成就和成功的奖项。Noyce第二阶段项目将是一个综合项目，早期和频繁的实地实习，使有抱负的教师在从事理论和实践的同时，既能加深对学科的理解，又能发展模范教学技能。为了实现这一目标，该项目将通过一种跨学科的教师准备方法吸引STEM内容领域以及加州大学伯克利分校教育研究生院的教师，这在为城市学校培训数学和科学教师的背景下被证明是至关重要的。在项目实施过程中，项目组将调查以下问题：(I)与州和国家教师队伍的入职教师候选人相比，哪些关键活动能够成功招聘和留住具有不同背景--包括性别、种族、民族和社会经济地位--的STEM专业候选人？(2)教师候选人、他们的大学主管，以及一旦他们开始教学职位，他们的管理人员如何看待他们为在城市学校任教做准备的质量？在编写这些文件时需要解决哪些差距和其他问题？(Iii)这些教师的课堂实践是什么性质的？这对他们的K-12学生的学习有什么影响？以及(Iv)这些教师的长期保留率是多少？这些教师在多大程度上承担了学校/地区的领导角色？对上述问题背后关键因素的研究将导致在城市环境中的STEM教学取得成功的国家模式，这也将促进STEM的更广泛参与，并通过数学和科学的教学和学习促进社会正义。

Through funding from the Robert Noyce Scholarship Program, this Track 1 Phase 2 project will address the established and growing national need to increase the quality, quantity, and diversity of the K-12 teaching workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The University of California-Berkeley (UC Berkeley) program will: (1) build on its current and expanding Cal Teach program which supports undergraduate students as they pursue their STEM disciplinary degrees along with credentials in teaching mathematics and science, particularly in urban schools; (2) leverage a new collaboration with the University of California-Merced (UC Merced) to offer education courses and activities for STEM undergraduates at both campuses and a secondary teaching credential in mathematics or science at UC Berkeley; and (3) enhance the overall efforts and activities through strong extant partnerships with local school districts (Berkeley, Oakland Unified, and Merced City) and with local research and outreach institutions (e.g., Lawrence Hall of Science and the Chabot Space and Science Center). The project will support a total of more than one-hundred (100) students by providing (a) internships to twelve (12) lower division undergraduate students per year to engage these students in research, professional development, and interactions with outreach partners, and (b) scholarships to nine (9) upper division students per year who are participants in the Cal Teach program. These scholarship awards will be highly visible within the STEM disciplines at UC Berkeley and UC Merced, and will be identified as awards which reflect student accomplishment and success. This Noyce Phase 2 project will be an integrated program, with early and frequent field placements, allowing aspiring teachers to develop both deep subject matter understanding and exemplary pedagogical skills as they engage in both theory and practice. To accomplish this, the project will engage faculty from the STEM content areas as well as from the Graduate School of Education at UC Berkeley through an interdisciplinary approach to teacher preparation that has been shown to be critical in the context of training mathematics and science teachers for urban schools. In the process of project implementation, the project team will investigate the following questions: (i) What are the key activities which generate successful recruiting and retention of STEM major candidates with diverse backgrounds--including gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status--compared to entering teacher candidates for the state and national teacher workforce? (ii) How do teacher candidates, their university supervisors, and, once they begin a teaching position, their administrators, perceive the quality of their preparation for a teaching career in urban schools? What gaps and other issues need to be addressed in their preparation? (iii) What is the nature of classroom practices for these teachers? What is the impact on their K-12 students' learning? and (iv) What is the long term retention rate of these teachers? To what extent do these teachers assume a leadership role in their schools/districts? Research related to the key factors behind answers to above questions will lead to a national model for success in STEM teaching in urban settings that will also stimulate broadening participation in STEM and promoting social justice through mathematics and science teaching and learning.