Boucher, M. L., PI; S. Cooper, L. Frost, K. Johnson, co-PIs; K. Burgard, Sr. Personnel; “Giving back and looking forward: Enhancing and diversifying STEM teaching in Southwest Florida through recruitment and mentorship of homegrown talent”, NSF -Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, Funded $945,015. (original) (raw)
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The Influence of the CSU Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program on Undergraduates' Teaching Plans
Georgia Educational Researcher
The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program offers academic and financial support for students pursuing secondary teaching certificates in STEM fields. In return, students commit to teaching in high-need K-12 school districts. The Noyce Program has had uneven results in increasing the number of teachers in high needs schools. Large scale studies of its impact indicate the program is not likely to influence decisions to teach but may persuade participants to initially teach in high needs schools. To better understand the influence of the Noyce Program, we offer case studies of two Noyce scholarship recipients at different stages: (1) a former scholarship recipient who has graduated and is currently teaching, and (2) a second-year recipient who is currently pursuing a teaching certificate. This qualitative analysis provides insights that may have implications for optimizing scholarship programs for recruiting and retaining highly qualified STEM teachers.
Journal of the National …, 2011
Central to the debate regarding the effectiveness of alternative and traditional teacher certification programs is the question of providing high quality teachers for high need schools. The Robert F. Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, funded by the National Science Foundation, supports both alternative and traditional routes to teacher certification nationwide and has similar requirements for all teacher candidates. It, therefore, provided a unique opportunity to compare alternative and traditional programs in terms of their perceived effectiveness in encouraging potential STEM teachers to teach in high need schools. Data came from a comprehensive, mixed methods evaluation of the Noyce Program and included 434 surveys completed by Noyce scholars, and 19 interviews with school district representatives. Comparisons between alternative and traditional programs were made based on scholars' demographics, affective characteristics, background experiences, and beliefs about teaching. Results demonstrated that Noyce scholars from alternative and traditional programs were similar in
Noyce Scholars and Their Educational and Career Aspirations at TAMIU
American Journal of Educational Research
This presentation attempts to examine the distinction between the educational and career aspirations among Noyce scholars at Texas A&M International University (TAMIU), Laredo, Texas. In addition, data collected throughout the last three years of the program will be reviewed together with the progress the scholars have made so far. Positive expectations on these matters together with scholarship experience will definitely lead to positive outcomes and the attitudes for them to succeed in becoming successful high school mathematics teachers. The investigation of these positive outcomes and attitudes from the scholars' participation, through extensive research, is essential for the continued success and growth of the Noyce Program in progress.
Recruiting Future STEM Teachers through Summer Internship Program
JOURNAL OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, 2019
The shortage of highly qualified STEM teachers has risen to a national concern. This article discusses the endeavor of a university in South Texas in recruiting future STEM teachers through the NSF Robert Noyce Summer Internship Program. The four-week paid internship program provided the undergraduate STEM majors with the opportunity to observe and participate in STEM education. The findings from the surveys indicated that the internship program made a positive impact on the interns. Their interest in teaching in the STEM area increased because of the Noyce Summer Internship Program. Owing to the positive experiences, a majority of the Noyce Interns decided to pursue teaching certificates to become high school STEM teachers.
Answering the Call to Improve STEM Education: A STEM Teacher Preparation Program
2015
This study examined a program that gives undergraduate candidates options for teacher certification. Candidates in STEM majors were recruited in order to provide them with a compact, flexible, and innovative option for adding teacher licensure to their bachelor degrees. This program used early field experiences that allow candidates to practice inquiry-focused teaching during their first class in an effort to expose them to the teaching profession and to secure their commitments to earning a teaching license in mathematics or science. The purpose of the study was to uncover the variables that contributed to this initial growth. The researchers found that candidates were highly satisfied with the program and were completing the first course with motivation to continue in the program.
The Journal of the World Universities Forum
National calls, such as the National Academy of Science's Rising Above the Gathering Storm, and President Obama's Educate to Innovate and 100Kin10, caution against the detrimental effects that a lack of math and science literacy pose to the health of the nation's economy and call for immediate action to increase the nation's science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) talent pool by increasing the number of K-12 STEM teachers. A growing number of universities are responding to this challenge by adopting the UTeach program, making secondary STEM teacher production a university-wide priority through a unique cross-college collaboration. The University of Texas' UTeach program offers both a STEM degree and secondary certification to teach math, science, or computer science in just four years. UTeach combines rigorous content preparation, pedagogy, and early field teaching experiences into four-year STEM degree plans. The UTeach Institute 1 was established to support the implementation of the UTeach model at universities across the country and currently partners with 35 universities implementing UTeachbased programs in 17 states across the United States. As of Spring 2013, approximately 1,600 UTeach graduates have been produced and that number is expected to rise to 9,000 by 2020. Initial results indicate that UTeach implementation is creating institutional change and establishing programs that are making headway in bringing STEM teacher preparation to the forefront of each university's mission. This article examines this scale-up experience as an example of a successful model for strengthening university-based STEM teacher preparation. Specifically, we review the implications for the university of the future, and address the necessary institutional changes required for successful program implementation. Our experience shows that successful program implementation in a university setting requires a balanced approach. Clear articulation of operational and instructional program components, structured implementation support, explicit program benchmarks and continuous evaluation of progress must be paired with an awareness of the local context and opportunities for adaptations and innovations to the model. 2
2019
According to the Department of Education, there are more than 2,000 teacher preparation programs (TPPs) in the United States1, but despite these numbers, concerns remain about the quality and quantity of STEM teachers in the workforce. For instance, Augustine (2007) finds that 61% of chemistry teachers and 67% of physics teachers did not major in and/or receive certification in their topic area (Augustine, 2007), and thus may not have the same content knowledge as a teacher who specialized in that topic. Furthermore, 20-30% of schools reported difficulties finding and employing STEM teachers between 2000 and 2012 (Cowan et al., 2016).
Urban Education, 2011
This article investigates the lasting legacy of the National Teacher Corps (NTC), which was created in 1965 by the U.S. federal government with two crucial assumptions: that teaching poor urban children required a very specific skill set and that teacher preparation programs were not providing adequate training in these skills. Analysis reveals that, though these assumptions still undergird many of today's current alternative certification programs, political and institutional issues prevented the NTC from realizing its full potential. Analysis also reveals that the NTC, because of changes, left a legacy of assumptions but never uncovered how to actually prepare teachers for urban schools.