Springboard to Success!

San Diego State University Foundation, San Diego CA

Investigators

Abstract

The Springboard to Success! Noyce Scholarship program aims to open the science and mathematics education pipeline in middle and high schools in the San Diego, California area by providing scholarships to support 33 new science and mathematics teachers. Partnering school districts, Sweetwater Union High School District and the City Heights Educational Collaborative, include 28 schools with highly diverse, low socioeconomic populations. The aim is to infuse ethnically diverse, reform-minded science and mathematics teachers into these educational systems. Related goals are to build a community of practice among science and mathematics teachers and prospective teachers, and to enhance and sustain momentum, energy and knowledge about hands-on minds-on learning. Springboard Scholars are actively recruited, carefully selected, well educated, appropriately placed, and strongly supported by collaborative support providers drawn from the districts and San Diego State University Colleges of Science and Education. Scholars participate in professional development workshops year-round during both their student and teaching years. They engage in action research to monitor and improve both instructional practice and personal growth. They also attend professional meetings with such groups as California State University/NASA and the American Association for the Advancement of Science - Pacific Division. A continuing goal is to promote an understanding of the nature of science and of science as a process, in addition to as a body of knowledge.