Building Capacity towards Certification of Middle Grades STEM Teachers through Partnership, Needs Assessment, and Curriculum Revision

在NSF Robert Noyce教师奖学金计划的支持下，该能力建设项目旨在通过探索课程改革和潜在的合作伙伴关系，增加STEM领域的高素质中学教师数量，服务于高质量STEM教学的国家利益。该项目将修改老道明大学现有的STEM课程，以符合至少三个领域中的两个领域的中学STEM许可证要求：数学、科学和技术。该项目还寻求继续与潮水社区学院合作，并寻求与当地学校建立更紧密的关系：切萨皮克市公立学校、诺福克市公立学校、朴茨茅斯市公立学校、萨福克市公立学校和富兰克林县公立学校。另外三个合作伙伴也将成为目标：托马斯·纳尔逊社区学院、诺福克州立大学和国家航空航天研究所-STEM综合教育中心。除了建立这些重要的伙伴关系，为制定Noyce Track 1提案做准备外，该项目的主要活动将是修订课程和评估需求。拟议的课程修订旨在为获得科学和数学执照的中学教师做好准备。修订过程将适用于海洋与地球科学专业，并进行改进，以便与其他STEM专业一起使用。高级理科课程和选修数学课程将发生变化，将重新设计，重点放在与中学教师相关的内容深度上。广泛的需求评估将检查现有数据，进行半结构化访谈，并对高中生、社区大学学生和校友以及当前本科生进行大量分层抽样，了解他们在追求教师职业生涯方面的需求和障碍。将传播通过这些活动获得的新知识，以支持当地的招聘工作和对STEM教师培训的研究。Noyce计划支持有才华的STEM本科专业和专业人员成为高需求学区的有效K-12数学和科学教师，并支持有经验的、模范的K-12 STEM教师成为STEM大师教师。它还支持对高需求学区K-12教师的持久性、保留率和有效性的研究。该奖项反映了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。

With support from the NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, this Capacity Building project aims to serve the national interest in high-quality STEM teaching by exploring curricular changes and potential partnerships to increase the number of highly qualified middle school teachers in STEM fields. The project will revise existing STEM curricula at Old Dominion University to be compatible with requirements for middle school STEM licensure in at least two of three areas: mathematics, science, and technology. The project also seeks to continue a partnership with Tidewater Community College and pursue stronger relationships with local area schools: Chesapeake City Public Schools, Norfolk City Public Schools, Portsmouth City Public Schools, Suffolk City Public Schools, and Franklin County Public Schools. Three additional partners will also be targeted: Thomas Nelson Community College, Norfolk State University, and the National Institute of Aerospace - Center for Integrative STEM Education. In addition to establishing these important partner relationships in preparation for development of a Noyce Track 1 proposal, the primary activities of the project will be curriculum revision and needs assessment. The proposed curriculum revisions aim to prepare middle school teachers for licensure in science and mathematics. The revision process will be applied to the Ocean and Earth Science major and refined for use with additional STEM majors. Changes will occur in upper-division science courses as well as elective mathematics courses, which will be re-designed to focus on depth of content relevant for middle school teachers. Extensive needs assessment will examine existing data, conduct semi-structured interviews, and survey a large stratified sample of high school students, community college students and alumni, and current undergraduates regarding needs and barriers with respect to pursuit of careers in teaching. The new knowledge gained by these activities will be disseminated to support both local recruiting efforts and research on STEM teacher preparation. The Noyce program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 mathematics and science teachers in high-need school districts and experienced, exemplary K-12 STEM teachers to become STEM master teachers. It also supports research on the persistence, retention, and effectiveness of K-12 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.