Building the Capacity to Recruit, Enroll, and Graduate Mathematics Education Majors

Assumption College, Worcester MA

Investigators

Abstract

With support from the NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, this project aims to serve the national interest in high quality STEM teaching by building capacity to educate more math majors to become highly-qualified math teachers in high-needs school districts. This project will enable faculty from Assumption College, Holyoke Community College, and Middlesex Community College to develop successful transfer pathways into an existing dual degree track for Math and Education majors. This project will also strengthen partnerships between STEM and Education faculty at Assumption College by supporting collaboration to develop and deliver a new, two-course sequence for STEM majors. The courses will be designed to deepen interest of STEM majors in teaching as a career and will prepare them for a teaching experience at a math-focused summer camp for local high school students. By investigating factors that affect undergraduate STEM majors' interest in teaching as a career, the project will contribute new knowledge about pathways to teaching for STEM undergraduates. The project activities aim to increase awareness among first-year, second-year, and transfer students about the existing dual degree program, enable more students to declare the dual major in Mathematics and Education in their third year, and increase the number of students who matriculate as certified teachers. Intensive advising and updated informational materials will increase student and faculty awareness of the new courses and the new articulation agreements developed among the partner colleges. An informational campaign will target parents and teachers of students in local high schools to recruit high school students for the summer camp in mathematics. The project's assessment strategies will provide information that will be used to: 1) support the STEM majors' successful delivery of effective mathematics instruction at the summer camp; and 2) determine what aspects of the cohort experiences increase interest in teaching. The overall project will benefit from the oversight of an advisory group composed of mathematics and education faculty and undergraduate students enrolled in the dual degree program. Dissemination efforts will focus on sharing knowledge and curricular materials with local communities as well as with a national audience through conference presentations and publications. The NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become K-12 mathematics and science teachers in high-need school districts and in-service teachers to become STEM master teachers. It also supports research on the persistence, retention, and effectiveness of K-12 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.