Building Capacity to Develop STEM Teacher Leaders in Montana Rural and American Indian Schools

Montana State University, Bozeman MT

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national need of building capacity to develop high-quality science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teacher leaders in rural and American Indian reservation communities. Like other rural states, Montana has a shortage of high-quality STEM teacher leaders in many geographically isolated, STEM-underrepresented, and high-needs schools and communities, particularly on and near Montana’s seven American Indian reservations. High-quality STEM teacher leaders can make a huge difference—inspiring young students to learn STEM content knowledge and pursue STEM careers, which ultimately broadens the diversity of the country’s STEM workforce. To develop high-quality STEM teacher leaders, qualified practicing STEM teachers must be recruited, trained, retained and provided ongoing support to develop their teaching competencies and hone their leadership skills. This project at Montana State University will assess the needs of STEM teachers in potential partner schools on or near four reservations (Flathead, Blackfeet, Northern Cheyenne, and Crow) while building a network of collaborators within and beyond the university. Together, these partners will develop effective methods for recruiting and selecting experienced and exemplary STEM teachers to become teacher leaders; and identify or recommend a meaningful, culturally sustaining teacher leadership development model appropriate for high-need rural and reservation communities. Our ultimate goal is to build the capacity to support a cohort of dedicated, high-quality and culturally sustaining teacher leaders who can implement and develop exemplary practices for supporting rural and American Indian students. The findings and suggested practices generated from this project will advance our knowledge and enhance our expertise on creating scaffolds to develop experienced, exemplary STEM teachers to become teacher leaders in high-need rural and minority school districts. This Capacity Building project is supported through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program. 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.