WPUNJ Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Phase II

William Paterson University, Wayne NJ

Investigators

Abstract

There is a well-documented need for competent, confident, and committed STEM teachers to serve in high-need school districts. Through this Phase 2 Noyce project, William Paterson University will produce twenty-four well-qualified STEM teachers who inspire learning and who are committed to teaching in high-needs districts. Scholarships will be provided to qualifying undergraduate STEM majors for their final two years of undergraduate study. The project will also offer opportunities for STEM majors to be exposed to teaching as a career through paid summer internships, tutoring, and/or teaching assistantships. William Paterson University (WPU) will partner with Mercer County Community College (MCCC) to develop certified STEM teachers who possess at least a baccalaureate degree in mathematics, chemistry, earth science, biology, or integrated math and science, which is a STEM major in the College of Science and Health at WPU. This Phase 2 project, funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, will also conduct research using a quasi-experimental design involving Phase 1 and Phase 2 Noyce Scholars to identify variables that lead them to become teachers, as well as variables that lead to their success in teaching in high need urban schools. Comparison groups of pre-service and in-service teachers at WPU, who are not part of the Noyce program, will be used. This project will be effective in recruiting and retaining new high-performing teachers who inspire STEM learning, thrive in high-need partner districts, and support others to do the same. The project aims to increase the number of STEM teacher candidates who become certified at WPU from 10% to 20% over the next five years by providing scholarships to qualifying WPU students and by providing opportunities for 12-20 STEM majors to be exposed to teaching as a career through summer internships, tutoring, supplemental instructional leadership or study group leader experiences. WPU will work in partnership with MCCC to recruit 3-5 STEM transfer students who are qualified for the Noyce Scholarship annually and recruit 6-10 qualified candidates who will enter the College of Education as STEM teacher candidates annually. The project will ensure that teacher candidates are capable of being inspiring teachers by enrolling in a science or mathematics pedagogy course that focuses on cooperative, collaborative, and inquiry-based methods, contributing to an annual chronicle of STEM lesson plans, and by conducting classroom observations of Phase I graduates in high need districts prior to graduation. Teacher candidates will spend their clinical practicum as well as their student teaching semester in a high-need urban professional development school. Faculty advisors, teacher-mentors and peer-mentors will be assigned to scholarship recipients during their junior and senior years and mentoring will continue into their first two years of teaching. The project will also support scholarship students through a project identity and social media forum. It is anticipated that three recruitment pools will increase as a result of this project: the number of STEM majors graduating with teacher certification, the number of minority STEM majors graduating with teacher certification, and the number of transfer STEM majors graduating with teacher certification. Ultimately, this project will contribute twenty-four new STEM teachers, many of them from underrepresented groups in STEM, as well as build knowledge related to STEM teacher recruitment for high need districts through 4-year and 2-year college partnerships.