Building Capacity to Enhance Rural Illinois STEM Teacher Education Pathways

Illinois College, Jacksonville IL

Investigators

Abstract

The project aims to meet the national need for more secondary STEM teachers in rural areas. Specifically, the effort responds to new Illinois state legislation that adds a year of computer science and two years of laboratory science to the high school graduation requirements. To address the resulting teacher workforce demands, Illinois College will revise and streamline pathways to STEM teacher licensure for STEM majors. These efforts will be guided by data collection to reveal barriers for STEM major recruitment to secondary STEM teaching careers. Additionally, the leadership team will apply insights from data collected, along with input from a STEM Advisory Committee, to streamline and revise the current STEM major curricula, so that students could double major in Education and finish their undergraduate degrees within 4 years. The 10-person STEM Advisory Committee will be majority school district stakeholders, including an Illinois College STEM alumnus now teaching secondary science, along with multiple Illinois College STEM and Education faculty. These changes could make preparation for STEM teaching careers more affordable and accessible, thereby increasing and diversifying the regional STEM teacher workforce. This project at Illinois College includes partnerships with four high-need local school districts – A-C Central, Beardstown, Jacksonville, and Virginia – as well as among STEM and Education faculty. The project has multiple goals, all of which aim to create a pipeline of high-quality STEM teachers to serve rural schools in west-central Illinois. The project will survey STEM majors to understand drivers and barriers to pursuing secondary STEM teacher licensure. Additionally, the project will streamline STEM and Education major programs to enable students to complete both majors and teaching licensure in four years. Further, the project will design a new computer science endorsement for STEM teachers to address new state legislation that adds computer science to high school graduation requirements. The project will be guided by input from a STEM Advisory Committee with members representing high-need schools, current STEM students, and alumni who are now STEM teachers, as well as STEM and Education faculty. Through these activities, Illinois College will strengthen its partnerships and recruitment efforts with local high-need schools. Outcomes of the effort could produce insights about making STEM teaching careers more accessible and affordable for STEM majors at other institutions and in rural contexts. 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 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.