Preparing Secondary STEM Teachers for High-Needs Settings Using Structured Mentoring

The project aims to serve the national need of recruiting and preparing a diverse population of expert STEM teachers who are equipped to thrive in high-needs schools and improve student-learning there. We apply the latest research on how mentoring relationships shape students' experiences, career trajectories, and competencies in professional work to STEM-teacher preparation. The first step will be to implement robust new recruiting efforts that invite applicants from historically underrepresented populations and initiate and sustain productive mentoring relationships. We will also upgrade the undergraduate curriculum to prepare prospective teachers to lead STEM learning in ways that respond to students' backgrounds and unique experiences. This project will pilot and refine an effective teacher professional development model based on a combination of mentoring, experiential learning, and integrated STEM learning. Successful implementation will result not only in the preparation and placement of teachers in schools that struggle to hire top-tier STEM teachers, benefitting local communities, but will also help to establish new models for the effective preparation of STEM teachers that may be valuable nationally. Based at Louisiana State University (LSU), this project is a partnership of the LSU College of Science, the LSU College of Human Sciences and Education, the East Baton Rouge Parish School System, the Iberville Parish School System, the LSU Upward Bound Program, the LSU Cain Center College Readiness Program, the LSU College of Science Freshman Seminar (SCI 1001), and LSU Enrollment Management. We will support approximately 17 undergraduate future teachers with scholarships of up to $20,000 per year for up to three years, an amount designed to make the program as broadly accessible as possible. The project will include new learning opportunities for future teachers to develop content-rich, culturally responsive teaching and mentoring skills. An enhanced induction system will leverage the experience of GeauxTeach graduates who are teaching in high-needs settings. Graduates will deliver excellent STEM learning in high-needs schools, improving opportunities in college and careers for diverse students. The project will enhance the reputation of LSU as a servant of the community and will promote a more diverse workforce through the preparation of K-12 students in STEM. By strengthening partnerships between high-need local education agencies (LEAs), community colleges, and LSU, the project will serve as a national model for positive, high-value-added interactions between universities and communities around them. Further, this work will contribute to the research goal of understanding how optimally to structure mentoring for K-12 STEM teachers in preparation and induction. 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 it supports 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.