Using Research Practice Partnerships to Take Preliminary Steps towards a Full-fledged Investigation of the Influence of Teacher Leaders on STEM Teacher Effectiveness and Retention

该项目旨在满足国家需要，在高需求学区开展关于STEM教师有效性和保留率的研究。资金将支持主要研究人员，因为他们寻求提高能力，进行一项研究计划，重点是检查干教师领导者的有效性和领导者对干教师的有效性和保留的影响。利用在三个不同的地理位置，内布拉斯加州，田纳西州和南卡罗来纳州建立的研究实践伙伴关系（RPPs），大学研究人员将与高需求的城市和农村学区合作，以确定最符合当地背景和目标的指标和数据源，该项目将用于测量STEM教师的有效性，以及STEM教师的保留。这个能力建设项目将侧重于确定所需的数据，深化伙伴关系，并就以证据为基础的战略达成一致，这些战略将加强与RPP方法一致的未来研究工作。 该项目由内布拉斯加大学林肯分校与中田纳西州立大学和南卡罗来纳州大学合作领导。这些机构的研究人员将与汉密尔顿县学校（查塔努加）、克罗斯敦高中（孟菲斯）、下里奇兰高中（哥伦比亚）和内布拉斯加州的四个地区教育服务单位的学校合作。项目目标包括利用RPPs来确定项目将用于衡量教师领导者对STEM教师有效性和高需求学区保留率的影响的数据源。这将使RPP合作者能够开发一个完整的研究设计，以调查STEM教师的有效性和在高需求的城市和农村地方教育机构的复杂系统中的保留。除了利用区域方案伙伴关系外，该项目还将使用两个循证框架，即实践社区框架和改进科学框架。这个能力建设项目是通过罗伯特诺伊斯教师奖学金计划（诺伊斯）的支持。诺伊斯计划支持有才华的STEM本科专业和专业人士成为有效的K-12 STEM教师和经验丰富的模范K-12教师，成为高需求学区的STEM硕士教师。该奖项反映了NSF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 to conduct research regarding STEM teacher effectiveness and retention in high-need school districts. Funds will support the principal investigators as they seek to increase capacity to conduct a research program that focuses on examining STEM teacher leader effectiveness and the leaders’ impacts on STEM teacher effectiveness and retention. Utilizing established research practice partnerships (RPPs) in three different geographic locations, Nebraska, Tennessee, and South Carolina, university researchers will collaborate with high-need urban and rural school districts to identify the metrics and data sources that best align to the local context and goals that the project will use for measuring STEM teacher effectiveness, as well as STEM teacher retention. This Capacity Building project will focus on identifying needed data, deepening partnerships, and coming to agreement as to the evidence-based strategies that will undergird a future research effort consistent with the RPP approach. This project is led by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in partnership with Middle Tennessee State University and the University of South Carolina. Researchers at these institutions will be working with schools in Hamilton County Schools (Chattanooga), Crosstown High School (Memphis), Lower Richland High School (Columbia), and four regional Educational Service Units in Nebraska. Project goals include utilizing the RPPs to identify the data sources the project will use to measure the influence of teacher leaders on STEM teacher effectiveness and retention in high-need school districts. This will position the RPP collaborators to develop a full research design to investigate STEM teacher effectiveness and retention in complex systems of high-need urban and rural local education agencies. In addition to leveraging RPPs, the project will use two evidence-based frameworks, the communities of practice framework and improvement science framework. 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 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.