Building Capacity to Expand Recruitment and High-Quality Preparation of Secondary STEM Teachers in High-Need Districts in Rural Virginia

Hollins University, Roanoke VA

Investigators

Abstract

The project aims to address the national need to prepare high-quality secondary STEM teachers to serve in high-need school districts. It intends to address shortages of high-quality secondary STEM teachers in rural Virginia by building streamlined pathways for STEM majors to complete both a STEM degree and teacher licensure in four years. This will occur through collaboration of Hollins University STEM and education faculty for the purpose of being able to recruit biology, chemistry, and mathematics majors to complete their STEM baccalaureate degree with teacher licensure as undergraduates. Through this Capacity Building project, Hollins University, a women’s university in Roanoke, Virginia, will develop recruitment strategies to attract STEM students to secondary STEM teaching careers in local high-need schools. In addition, the project will enable transfer STEM students to complete both a STEM degree and teaching licensure in two years. To meet the needs of students from diverse backgrounds or from low-income communities in the region, the project will integrate culturally and linguistically inclusive teaching methods into the revised teacher education curriculum. These efforts will prepare future STEM teachers to work effectively with secondary student populations in rural Virginia. This Capacity Building project at Hollins University includes partnerships with Virginia Western Community College (VWCC) and two high-need schools, William Fleming High School and Lucy Addison Middle School. Hollins STEM and education faculty will reevaluate the STEM and education curricula to create streamlined pathways for STEM undergraduate students to complete their STEM degrees and teacher licensure within four years. Culturally and linguistically inclusive teaching methods will be integrated into the revised curricula coursework to prepare future teachers to effectively support learners from diverse backgrounds. In addition, faculty from both Hollins and Virginia Western Community College will collaborate to develop articulation agreements to support STEM transfer students in completing a STEM degree with teacher licensure within two years. Data will be collected from students, faculty, and advisors about barriers to STEM teaching careers. These data will be used to build a recruitment strategy to attract STEM undergraduate students in biology, chemistry, and mathematics to pursue STEM teaching licensure and careers in the region. Partnerships with representatives from the community college and high-need schools, along with integration of culturally and linguistically inclusive pedagogy, have the potential to produce highly qualified STEM teachers prepared to serve increasingly diverse student populations in Virginia’s rural high-need schools. Evaluation of the project will be conducted by Brockport Research Institute through interviews with project stakeholders and on-going review of documents produced by collaborative stakeholder teams. Outcomes of the effort will be disseminated through national and regional teacher education conferences, as well as communications with local and regional educational agencies. 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 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.