Exploring Partnerships to Build Trajectories into STEM Teaching Professions

Fisk University, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to contribute to the national need for highly effective mathematics and science teachers. Toward this goal, it will engage in a one-year planning/capacity building process to build the foundation for a teacher education program. Secondary schools, particularly those in high-priority districts, struggle to fill math and science vacancies every year. This project will examine the perceptions of undergraduate STEM students at Fisk University about teaching as a viable career option. It will also explore potential experiences that could support student recruitment and success as teachers and develop a trajectory into the teaching profession. In seeking to expand the number of STEM teachers, the project intends to build bridges between Fisk University students, experiences in Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, and the secondary education program at Vanderbilt University. This project at Fisk University, a Historically Black College and University, aims to strengthen existing partnerships with math and science teachers in Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (a high-need school district), with Nashville State Community College, and with an existing Noyce Graduate Teaching Fellows program at Vanderbilt University. The overall project goal is to build the knowledge, community, and partnerships needed to increase the number of students recruited into STEM teaching at Fisk University. The proposal aims to develop an experiential curriculum and mentoring that will support recruitment and successful preparation of STEM majors to become licensed in secondary STEM teaching. Fisk University’s leadership in this work will help broaden participation in STEM teaching. This project intends to develop a model for teacher preparation that combines STEM mastery with teaching excellence, including preparation for using pedagogies infused with social justice. Formative evaluation will provide data to ground decision making and to improve development of the program. The summative evaluation will examine the degree to which project goals are achieved, including development of a STEM secondary teacher program at Fisk University. This Capacity Building project 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.