Building Partnerships to Recruit Recent STEM Graduates into a Masters of Arts in Teaching Program

The project aims to serve the national need of preparing high-quality secondary STEM teachers to teach in high-need rural and urban communities by building partnerships across the university and the state. As the land grant university, Iowa State University (ISU) is charged with serving the children of Iowa and their diverse needs. Through a strategic collaboration with faculty in education and engineering, as well as with a nationally recognized program for supporting first-generation students in STEM fields, this capacity-building project aims to redesign the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) to attract more students and create future teachers better prepared to serve the diverse needs of Iowa’s students. Having well-prepared STEM teachers will support students’ STEM knowledge base and secure Iowa’s growth as a global competitor in the increasingly technological world. This capacity-building project at Iowa State University includes a partnership with Science Bound, an organization that has supported first-generation university students’ success in STEM (plus agriculture) majors for over 30 years. Project goals include 1) Increasing the number and diversity of applicants for the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT), a 12-month program for STEM graduates to become secondary mathematics and science teachers; 2) Redesigning the MAT curriculum to strengthen teacher candidates’ cultural competency and to integrate university coursework with purposeful teaching experiences that provide opportunities for teacher candidates to apply what they have learned; and 3) Positioning ISU to submit a Track 2 Noyce proposal in 2025. While research has identified promising practices, teacher educators and teacher education programs still grapple with how to best educate teacher candidates so that they are strong teachers for students from diverse backgrounds when they enter the profession. Partnering with Science Bound, which has a long history of supporting diverse middle and high school students in summer learning experiences, will support the creation of rich summer teaching opportunities for MAT teacher candidates. This project will enable research along several lines including challenges and opportunities afforded by the integration of coursework and experiences, the structure of the teaching, the learning of the teacher candidates, and the partnership of a MAT program and Science Bound, making important contributions to the field. 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 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.