Enhancing Secondary Physics Teacher Recruitment, Preparation, and Retention in High-Needs Secondary Schools Through Aligning Infrastructures at a Large Research University

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

This Capacity Building project aims to serve the national need of identifying, developing, and supporting highly qualified physics teachers to teach in high-need secondary schools, addressing a physics teacher shortage that has resulted in inequities in student preparation for post-secondary STEM coursework. This project builds physics teaching workforce capacity by developing holistic recruitment mechanisms, prospective teacher training, and support for physics teachers in high-need secondary schools. This secondary physics teaching capacity building project aims to pursue a Noyce Track 1 pathway for a more diverse group of students to enter and succeed in post-secondary STEM. This University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign project includes partnerships with the following high-need Illinois high schools: Champaign Central, Armstrong, Rantoul, Champaign, Danville, and Urbana. Project goals include building capacity to (a) recruit and train undergraduate STEM majors to become physics teachers and (b) support them during in-service teaching to maximize long-term retention. First, to aid recruitment, this project aims to double the active undergraduate membership in the aspiring physics teacher group (Future Leaders in Illinois Physics Teaching – FLIPT) and expose members to physics teacher presentations and classroom observations at high-need schools. Second, to aid preservice training, this project will solidify partnerships with high-need schools, including a prospective physics teacher scholarship program for student teaching. Finally, to establish clear pathways for aspiring physics teachers between waypoints of interest, induction, preservice training, and in-service support, this project will develop explicit connections between three existing departmental infrastructures: (a) FLIPT, (b) the Learning Assistant (LA) Program in which undergraduates co-instruct physics labs, and (c) the NSF-supported Illinois Physics and Secondary Schools (IPaSS) in-service physics teacher community. Opportunities for shifts in student attitudes toward physics teaching careers are particularly ripe at large universities serving over 1,000 STEM majors in their introductory physics courses each semester. This project will survey students in introductory physics courses, the LA program, and FLIPT about their beliefs surrounding physics teaching careers and use this information to design a recruiting strategy. If successful, the strategy will be shared with other physics departments. This project models effectively aligned collaboration between departments of physics and education that can make secondary physics teaching a more visible and viable career choice within large research universities. 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 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.