Recruitment, Readiness, and Retention of Engineering, Mathematics, and Science Teachers

The project aims to serve the national need of preparing high-quality STEM teachers by recruiting professionals with degrees in STEM and supporting them to become grades 6-12 STEM teachers and leaders in high-need schools. This project will prepare two cohorts of STEM teachers and leaders as teaching fellows (TFs) and will target TFs from high-need school districts in which they will teach. TFs will lead a STEM Summer Camp for secondary students, complete a Master of Education in Teaching in Secondary Education, and four years of teaching in a high-need school. To support retention in the teaching profession, the project will implement a four-year supplementary induction program for TFs that includes university STEM faculty as mentors and strategically placing two or more TFs at the same school when possible. The expected outcomes include highly qualified STEM teachers who are well prepared and supported to teach and be leaders in high-need schools. The project at the University of North Texas includes partnerships with Denton ISD, Gains in the Education of Mathematics and Science (GEMS) program, and non-profit partners. The project goals include: 1) Building knowledge about recruiting, readiness, and retaining engineering majors as STEM teachers. 2) Building 16 STEM post-baccalaureate leaders and community between engineering, mathematics, and science majors in the project, the field, and the profession with this project's collaborators, and 3) Strengthening partnerships between UNT College of Education, the College of Engineering, the College of Science, district/school partner, and non-profit partners to recruit, prepare, and retain STEM teachers. The project has the potential to serve as a model for universities seeking to address STEM teacher shortages, offering a replicable blueprint for supporting STEM TFs thereby establishing a sustainable teacher pipeline. This Track 2: Teaching Fellowships 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.