Building Reciprocal Relationships: Mentorships to Strengthen and Sustain STEM Teachers

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national need for preparing highly qualified STEM teachers. The project seeks to recruit STEM graduates to participate as Noyce Scholars in a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program at Duke University. The project intends to provide the Noyce Scholars with significant financial support as they earn their degree and strong mentoring that starts in their first year in the MAT program and continues during their first years of STEM teaching in a high-need school district. The project focuses on recruiting a diverse group of individuals with STEM degrees. Additionally, the project intends to conduct research on issues of self-efficacy and professional identity for early career teachers. The research results can contribute to what is known about retaining STEM teachers and help develop ways to increase the number of teachers who have long careers in teaching. This project at Duke University includes a partnership with Durham Public Schools. Project goals include to: 1) recruit and enroll five cohorts of five highly-qualified STEM graduates and mid-career professionals for a total of 25 Noyce Scholars; 2) provide the Noyce Scholars with the resources needed to support grades 9-12 student achievement in mathematics and science; 3) support the Noyce Scholars during the first three years of their career as they teach in high-need school districts; and 4) determine the factors that are most effective in recruiting, preparing, and retaining highly-qualified teachers for high-need school districts. The research plan will include interviews and surveys of teachers who are current Noyce Scholars, as well as those who participated in previous Noyce grants. This research aims to consider self-efficacy and professional identity, constructs that have been determined to be important when considering persistence in teaching. This Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends 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 STEM teachers to become STEM master teachers in high-need school districts. It also supports research on the persistence, retention, and effectiveness 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.