Building Capacity to Enhance Rural Illinois STEM Teacher Education Pathways

该项目旨在满足全国对农村地区更多中学STEM教师的需求。具体来说，这项努力是对伊利诺伊州新立法的回应，该立法将一年的计算机科学和两年的实验室科学添加到高中毕业要求中。为了解决由此产生的教师劳动力需求，伊利诺伊大学将修改并简化STEM专业学生获得STEM教师执照的途径。这些努力将以数据收集为指导，揭示STEM专业招聘到STEM中学教学职业的障碍。此外，领导团队将运用从收集的数据中获得的见解，以及STEM咨询委员会的意见，来精简和修改当前的STEM专业课程，以便学生可以在4年内完成教育双学位并完成本科学位。这个由10人组成的STEM咨询委员会将由大多数学区的利益相关者组成，其中包括一名伊利诺伊大学STEM学院的校友，他现在教中学科学，还有多名伊利诺伊大学STEM和教育学院的教员。这些变化可以使STEM教学职业的准备工作更实惠，更容易获得，从而增加和多样化区域STEM教师队伍。伊利诺伊大学的这个项目包括与四个高需求的当地学区（A-C Central, Beardstown， Jacksonville和Virginia）以及STEM和教育教师的合作。该项目有多个目标，所有目标都旨在培养高素质的STEM教师，为伊利诺伊州中西部的农村学校服务。该项目将对STEM专业的学生进行调查，以了解攻读二级STEM教师执照的驱动因素和障碍。此外，该项目将简化STEM和教育专业课程，使学生能够在四年内完成专业和教师执照。此外，该项目将为STEM教师设计一个新的计算机科学背书，以应对将计算机科学纳入高中毕业要求的新州立法。该项目将以STEM咨询委员会的意见为指导，该委员会的成员代表高需求学校、当前的STEM学生、现任STEM教师的校友以及STEM和教育教师。通过这些活动，伊利诺伊大学将加强与当地高需求学校的伙伴关系和招聘工作。这项工作的结果可能会产生一些见解，使其他机构和农村地区的STEM专业学生更容易获得和负担得起STEM教学职业。本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教师成为高需求学区的STEM大师教师。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。

The project aims to meet the national need for more secondary STEM teachers in rural areas. Specifically, the effort responds to new Illinois state legislation that adds a year of computer science and two years of laboratory science to the high school graduation requirements. To address the resulting teacher workforce demands, Illinois College will revise and streamline pathways to STEM teacher licensure for STEM majors. These efforts will be guided by data collection to reveal barriers for STEM major recruitment to secondary STEM teaching careers. Additionally, the leadership team will apply insights from data collected, along with input from a STEM Advisory Committee, to streamline and revise the current STEM major curricula, so that students could double major in Education and finish their undergraduate degrees within 4 years. The 10-person STEM Advisory Committee will be majority school district stakeholders, including an Illinois College STEM alumnus now teaching secondary science, along with multiple Illinois College STEM and Education faculty. These changes could make preparation for STEM teaching careers more affordable and accessible, thereby increasing and diversifying the regional STEM teacher workforce.This project at Illinois College includes partnerships with four high-need local school districts – A-C Central, Beardstown, Jacksonville, and Virginia – as well as among STEM and Education faculty. The project has multiple goals, all of which aim to create a pipeline of high-quality STEM teachers to serve rural schools in west-central Illinois. The project will survey STEM majors to understand drivers and barriers to pursuing secondary STEM teacher licensure. Additionally, the project will streamline STEM and Education major programs to enable students to complete both majors and teaching licensure in four years. Further, the project will design a new computer science endorsement for STEM teachers to address new state legislation that adds computer science to high school graduation requirements. The project will be guided by input from a STEM Advisory Committee with members representing high-need schools, current STEM students, and alumni who are now STEM teachers, as well as STEM and Education faculty. Through these activities, Illinois College will strengthen its partnerships and recruitment efforts with local high-need schools. Outcomes of the effort could produce insights about making STEM teaching careers more accessible and affordable for STEM majors at other institutions and in rural contexts. 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 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.