McMurry STEM Teacher Education Preparation Program (M-STEPP)

Building Capacity for STEM Teacher Preparation in Rural School Districts The project aims to serve the national need to increase the number of high-quality STEM teachers in rural areas. The project’s goals are to 1) assess institutional and local school district needs to determine the extent and areas of STEM teacher shortages within those districts; 2) create recruitment strategies to spotlight the importance of STEM careers and strengthen the pool of STEM teacher candidates; and 3) streamline the STEM certification curriculum to emphasize instructional engagement and optimally prepare pre-service teachers to successfully teach secondary STEM curriculum in Texas. Collectively, these efforts seek to increase the pool of well-prepared teachers with a background in STEM disciplines in west-central Texas. Through this project, McMurry University will collaborate with Cisco College to survey several rural local educational agencies to determine the extent of STEM teacher shortages in rural west-central Texas. McMurry University and Cisco College will then use the results of these surveys to create recruitment strategies and identify pathways for students to pursue STEM teaching careers. The surveys will also inform curricular modifications to expand certification areas and improve teacher preparation at these institutions. This project will use demographic data provided by the Texas Education Administration (TEA) for each local education agency and use both surveys and focus groups to conduct a needs assessment centered on the following: 1) the extent of the STEM teacher shortage, 2) the perceived adequacy of the science curriculum as delivered by school districts, and 3) the potential barriers to students selecting STEM majors. Since a first step in becoming a highly qualified STEM teacher is the selection of a STEM major, the project will create new recruitment strategies for STEM majors that are specifically focused on addressing the perceived barriers uncovered in the needs assessment. 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 retention and effectiveness 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.