Recruiting, Preparing, and Retaining Culturally Responsive and Equity-minded STEM Teachers for High-Need Schools

Loyola University Maryland, Inc., Baltimore MD

Investigators

Abstract

This Noyce Track 1 project aims to serve the national need of preparing highly qualified science and math teachers. Additionally, this project will support 28 science and math graduates and career-changers (with education in biology, chemistry, earth science, mathematics, or physics) by offering and providing scholarships and stipends, internships, mentoring, and induction activities. The proposed project components will enable high-achieving prospective teachers to become secondary science and math teachers with extensive expertise in active learning instruction, computational thinking and coding, and high-impact teaching. This Noyce project at Loyola University Maryland includes partnerships with Baltimore County Public Schools. Project goals include the recruitment, retention, and graduation of 28 highly qualified secondary science and math post-baccalaureate teaching candidates into Loyola's Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program over five years. A second goal is to place 100% of MAT graduates in high-need schools through partnerships with Local Education Agencies, with employment and induction support; and retain 85% of Noyce graduates in high-need schools for three years by providing new teacher support through a Noyce Induction Series. Third, and finally, is to improve the quality of STEM teaching practices of prospective and early career science and math teachers in high-need schools with an enhanced Master of Arts in Teaching curricula and an Induction Series. Students participating in this project include Loyola science and math bachelor's degree graduates and STEM professionals seeking a career change. Using a combination of curricular activities grounded in high-impact teaching for prospective teachers and induction support as they enter the profession, this project will improve the quality of STEM education for students in high-need schools. This project will be iteratively evaluated. Evaluation of the project will be guided by the following evaluation question(s): (a) Q1 - Has the Noyce program at Loyola met the targets in recruitment, retention, and enhancement of high-quality teaching practices of Noyce scholars? and (b) Q2 - What can be improved in the Noyce program at Loyola to further improve the recruitment, retention and teaching effectiveness of Noyce scholars? The project will potentially generate new evidence illuminating effective strategies and practices for recruiting, retaining, and graduating any student entering a STEM teaching career in a high-need school, and serve as an example for other liberal arts private colleges seeking to develop and expand STEM teacher preparation programs. The results of this project will be disseminated to help enhance the field. This Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends 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 effectiveness and retention 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.