Preparing STEM Teachers to Successfully Navigate the Urban to Rural Gradient in Outstate Minnesota

Minnesota State University Moorhead, Moorhead MN

Investigators

Abstract

With funding from the National Science Foundation's Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program, the Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM) Noyce Scholarship Program will recruit Noyce STEM Teaching Scholars in the sciences and mathematics. The scholarships and stipends will be distributed among the following student populations in the following ratio: 16 STEM majors to obtain a mathematics or science license through the addition of a fifth year; 4 STEM education majors to add a STEM major and a second licensure area; and 15 returning STEM graduates to add a mathematics or science license. The program will provide an additional 35 new highly qualified mathematics and science teachers in the region over the period of the grant. In this project, the Minnesota State University Moorhead is partnering with 3 urban school districts (Moorhead, Fargo, West Fargo), as well as with rural school districts (Lakes Country Regional Cooperative). In addition, MSUM is collaborating with two community colleges (Minnesota State Community and Technical College and White Earth Tribal Community College). While the project is grounded in the best practices described in the education research literature, it is also informed by the lessons learned by the PI team from a Robert Noyce Capacity Building grant. The goal of the project is to increase the number of new STEM teachers who are well-prepared to work with ethnically and economically diverse students in high-need schools. Internship experiences in K-12 environments and undergraduate Learning Assistant opportunities will be available to STEM majors. Noyce Scholars will be recruited from among these student groups, as well as other populations including the community college collaborators. To prepare new teachers for classrooms in which many of the students will be English Language Learners, each Scholar will take take a STEM-based Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) course. Field experiences for the students will be provided in K-12 environments with diverse student populations. Mentoring support for the new teachers will include both face-to-face and online components. This mentoring support will be the focus of the research efforts of the project. Expanding on their work with the Minnesota Teacher Research Network's protocols, an 8-year initiative to investigate the practices and beliefs of new STEM teachers, the PI team will examine the teaching practices of the graduated Scholars in diverse classroom settings. The overall project will be evaluated using demographic data, grades and other performance assessments, and standardized tests scores. Surveys will be used to determine student perceptions. The data collected will inform teacher preparation program nationwide in best practices to recruit, prepare and retain culturally relevant teachers for under-resourced schools.