Preparing Chicago STEM Teacher-Leaders through Community Partnership, Transformative Practices, and Mentorship for Improved Middle Level STEM Education

该项目旨在满足全国对高需求学区初中和高中STEM教师领导的需求。通过该项目培养的STEM教师领袖（Master Teaching Fellows, mtf）将在STEM教师的职业生涯早期为他们提供帮助，以改善教学，增强他们对教学方法的信心，并培养他们作为教师专业人员的整体支持感。该项目将与芝加哥公立学校（一个多样化、高需求的城市学校系统）合作，实施一项导师发展计划，该计划利用专业学习社区、变革实践、课程作业以及与社区组织（非营利组织）的有意合作，为早期职业中学STEM教师建立一个支持系统。通过拟议的指导计划，东北伊利诺伊大学和合作伙伴有可能建立一支强大而忠诚的STEM教学队伍，他们对STEM内容非常了解，并以学校社区和学生的生活为基础。通过与更大的STEM社区合作，该项目有可能提高学生参与度，加强STEM教学，并提高机会地区教师的留任率。东北伊利诺伊大学的这个项目包括与芝加哥公立学校、一个高需求学区、非营利性合作伙伴、科学与工业博物馆、西区蜜蜂男孩和芝加哥数学圈的合作。在五年的时间里，该项目将提供研究生水平的STEM领导证书，以培养一批15名拥有硕士学位的有经验的科学和数学初中和高中教师，支持他们成为教师领导，他们将做以下工作：(1)指导第二年的STEM教师；(2)设计专业发展，促进专业学习社区；(3)与社区组织建立伙伴关系，推广与文化相关的教学方法。为了整合这些目标，大学教师和非营利合作伙伴旨在与mtf合作，使用持续的专业学习社区方法，共同设计基于场所的课程，解决真正的社区问题。这个持续的专业学习社区将以恢复/变革实践为基础，以灌输以尊重和承担责任为中心的关系，同时建立工具来引导变革所需的困难对话，并在造成伤害时修复伤害。评估问题考察了专业学习社区作为影响教师STEM身份和实践的工具的有效性，以及与基于社区的STEM组织建立关系对基于地点的教学策略和教师保留的有效性。项目评估的结果旨在更好地理解如何最好地支持中级教师参与基于文化的STEM教学。预计研究结果将通过地区STEM教师研讨会、会议和学术出版物在全国和区域范围内传播。项目评价将检查培训模式本身的有效性。这个Track 3：硕士教学奖学金项目是由Robert Noyce教师奖学金计划（Noyce）支持的。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教师的有效性和留任率的研究。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 serve the national need for STEM Teacher Leaders in middle and high schools in high-need school districts. The STEM Teacher Leaders (Master Teaching Fellows, MTFs) developed through this project will be positioned to provide STEM teachers early in their careers with help to improve instruction, enhance their confidence in their teaching approaches, and develop their overall feeling of support as teacher professionals. The project will collaborate with the Chicago Public Schools, a diverse, high-need, urban school system by implementing a mentor-development program that uses professional learning communities, transformative practices, coursework, and intentional partnerships with community-based organizations (nonprofits) to build a support system for early-career middle school STEM teachers. Through the proposed mentorship program, Northeastern Illinois University and partners have the potential to build a strong and committed STEM teaching workforce, highly knowledgeable about STEM content, and grounded in the school community and in students’ lives. By engaging with the larger STEM community, the project has the potential to increase student engagement, enhance STEM instruction, and improve retention of teachers in opportunity districts.This project at Northeastern Illinois University includes partnerships with Chicago Public Schools, a high-need school district, and nonprofit partners, the Museum of Science and Industry, Westside Bee Boyz, and Math Circles of Chicago. Over a five year period, the project will offer a graduate level STEM Leadership certificate to prepare a cohort of 15 experienced science and math middle and high school teachers, who already possess master's degrees, support to become Teacher-Leaders who will do the following: (1) mentor second year STEM teachers; (2) design professional development and facilitate professional learning communities; and (3) build partnerships with community-based organizations to promote culturally relevant pedagogies. To integrate these goals, university faculty and nonprofit partners aim to use a sustained professional learning community approach in collaboration with the MTFs to co-design place-based curricula that address authentic community issues. This sustained professional learning community will be grounded in restorative/transformative practices in order to inculcate relationships centered around respect and responsibility-taking while building the tools to navigate difficult conversations needed for transformative change and to repair harm when caused. Evaluation questions examine the effectiveness of professional learning communities as a vehicle for influencing teachers’ STEM identities and practices as well as the effectiveness of relationship-building with community-based STEM organizations on place-based teaching strategies and teacher retention. Results of the project evaluation are intended to provide greater understanding on how to best support middle level teachers to engage culturally grounded STEM instruction. Results are projected to be disseminated nationally and regionally at workshops for area STEM teachers, at conferences, and through scholarly publications. Project evaluation will examine the effectiveness of the training model itself. This Track 3: Master Teaching Fellowships 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.