Building Capacity to Produce STEM Teachers at a Hispanic Serving Institution in Illinois

Aurora University

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national need to increase the number of qualified secondary STEM teachers, including the number of Hispanic STEM teachers in high-needs school districts. Increased participation of Hispanic students in STEM secondary education majors will help address the national and local need for culturally responsive, bilingual teachers. These teachers will also also serve as role models to help all secondary students envision themselves in STEM teaching careers. The project team will develop and implement survey instruments for high school and college students who are majoring in STEM. Data collected from the surveys will be used to develop effective mechanisms for increasing awareness of STEM teaching licensure as a career path and help to identify opportunities to help students pursuing and attaining licensure. The implementation of professional development speakers and faculty workshops on culturally relevant teaching will help faculty encourage underrepresented students to pursue this pathway. These activities are expected to increase institutional capacity for the recruitment and support of students in the secondary STEM education program. This project at Aurora University includes partnerships with the East Aurora and West Aurora School Districts and Elgin Community College. Project goals are to identify methods to connect students to careers in STEM secondary education, establish the foundation for a strong pipeline of STEM secondary teacher candidates from area high schools and community colleges, and to develop the infrastructure for a subsequent Robert Noyce Track I Scholarships and Stipends program. Replicable survey and focus group instruments will enable other institutions to adapt and implement these tools to better increase their own STEM education licensure enrollment and allow high school faculty to address barriers earlier in the education process, when many students are formulating career perceptions. An independent evaluation of this program will include focus groups, interviews, and document reviews combined with quantitative/direct data from program activities to measure achieved outcomes, challenges, and impact of the project. Results from this program will be disseminated on the project website, at campus events and meetings, to area high schools and colleges, and will be presented at the annual NSF Noyce Summit as well as at regional and national conferences. 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.