Building the Capacity to Address the Urban STEM Teacher Shortage in Massachusetts

该项目旨在满足国家建设能力的需求，以增加城市高需求学校高质量中学STEM教师的数量。该项目将探索促使伍斯特理工学院STEM专业学生决定成为教师的因素。它将通过调查、访谈和焦点小组来确定这些因素。该项目还旨在了解使潜在的诺伊斯学者群体多样化的机制。该项目还计划与当地高需求学校建立牢固的伙伴关系，这些学校将监督、指导并雇用完成该项目的诺伊斯学者。伍斯特理工学院的这个项目包括与伍斯特公立学区的合作。能力建设Noyce项目的目标是为成功的Noyce Track 1项目建立研究知情的计划，该项目将支持STEM专业的本科学生成为认证教师。该项目计划包括在伍斯特理工学院开发一个教师准备计划，以更好地满足教师候选人的需求和可以雇用这些毕业生的中学的需求。这样做的目的是，当地高需求的中学将让学生参加早期的实地工作和实习，这有助于巩固他们从事教师职业的意愿。另一个目标是更好地理解教师培训项目的价值主张。研究将使用以人为本的设计工具来开发洞察力和证据，以便更多在伍斯特理工学院接受过培训的STEM中学教师在城市高需求学校任教。要了解如何建立能力并减少限制STEM专业学生成为教师的障碍，需要回答两个研究问题：教师候选人是否有未满足的需求？阻碍他们成为STEM中学教师的障碍是什么？当地中学、教师和招聘经理如何评估教师候选人和毕业生，他们的高需求学校具体需要什么？该能力建设项目由罗伯特·诺伊斯教师奖学金项目（诺伊斯）支持。Noyce计划支持有才华的STEM本科专业和专业人士成为有效的K-12 STEM教师，并支持经验丰富的模范K-12 STEM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教师的持久性、留任性和有效性的研究。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并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 of building capacity to increase the number of high-quality secondary school STEM teachers in urban, high-need schools. The project will explore factors that promote the decision of STEM majors at Worcester Polytechnic Institute to become teachers. It will identify these factors through surveys, interviews, and focus groups. The project also aims to understand mechanisms to diversify the pool of potential Noyce Scholars. The project also plans to build strong partnerships with local, high-need schools that will supervise, mentor, and hire Noyce Scholars who complete the program.This project at Worcester Polytechnic Institute includes a partnership with the Worcester Public School district. The goals of this Capacity Building Noyce project are to establish research-informed plans for a successful Noyce Track 1 program that will support undergraduate STEM majors to become certified teachers. The project plans include development of a Teacher Preparation Program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute that better serves both the needs of teacher candidates and the needs of secondary schools that could hire these graduates. The intention is that local, high-need secondary schools will place students into early field work and practicums, which can help to solidify their intention to pursue a teaching career. Another goal is to better understand the value proposition of the teacher preparation program. Research will be conducted using human-centered design tools to develop insight and evidence so that more STEM secondary teachers trained at Worcester Polytechnic Institute are teaching in urban, high-need schools. Answers to two research questions are needed to understand how to build capacity and reduce barriers limiting the number of STEM majors becoming teachers: Do teacher candidates have unmet needs and what are the barriers preventing them from becoming secondary STEM teachers? How do local secondary schools, teachers, and hiring managers assess the teacher candidates and graduates, and what specifically is required for their high-need schools? This Capacity Building 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 STEM teachers to become STEM master teachers in high-need school districts. It also supports research on the persistence, retention, and effectiveness 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.