Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program Track 1 Project at Tennessee Technological University

Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville TN

Investigators

Abstract

The project aims to serve the national need of recruiting and retaining highly qualified middle/high school STEM educators. The U.S. has a dire teacher shortage with many thousands of STEM teacher jobs unfilled at the high school and middle school levels. This Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program Track 1 Project at Tennessee Technological University project aims to prepare 22 middle/high school STEM educators to teach in the rural Upper Cumberland region. This project has the potential to significantly increase the number of licensed STEM teachers produced by Tennessee Tech University and contribute to alleviating the national shortage. The project plans to leverage rigorous recruitment and retention strategies such as providing: (1) an early teaching experience internship; (2) the opportunity to take an introductory education course; (3) support and mentoring while Scholars obtain their STEM degree and licensure, and (4) help Scholars transition into the broader STEM education community during their first year of teaching and beyond. This project at Tennessee Tech University includes partnerships with four high-need local education agencies (LEAs) in the rural Upper Cumberland region: Jackson, Overton, Putnam, and White counties. Project goals include (1) recruiting 25 early teaching experience (ETE) interns (2) graduating 22 job-ready STEM educators with both a STEM degree and teaching licensure, (3) enhancing scholars' instructional skills so that they are better prepared to teach effectively, (4) supporting graduates in their induction year so that they receive formative feedback and integrate into relevant communities of practice and professional organizations, (5) establishing and maintaining a community to support scholars, and (6) implementing a plan to monitor compliance with teaching service commitment. The project will provide scholarship support for grades 6–12 licensure programs in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and geology, and the grades 6–8 licensure programs in mathematics and science. The project will also investigate these questions: What are effective recruitment strategies? Does taking an introductory education course increase the likelihood of interns transitioning to scholars? What are the relative advantages/ disadvantages of obtaining licensure in this way, as compared to other programs? How does a carefully managed Noyce community affect persistence and retention of new teachers? 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.