- Year 2017
- NSF Noyce Award # 1660506
- First Name Janelle
- Last Name Johnson
- Discipline Other: STEM, STEM
- Co-PI(s)
Hsiu-Ping Liu, Metropolitan State University of Denver, hliu1@msudenver.edu
- Presenters
Janelle Johnson and Philip Bernhardt, Metropolitan State University of Denver, jjohn428@msudenver.edu and pberhar@msudenver.edu
Need
STEM courses serve as gatekeepers for many students, reducing the number of STEM majors and potential STEM teachers. Students most negatively impacted are first generation/students of color, meaning that the School of Education has an uphill battle to recruit more STEM majors of color to become teachers. Many students need greater support during STEM courses. The STEM teaching pipeline is leaky for all students, and especially students of color. Partnership challenges specific to collaboration with high-need schools. One of the major challenges highlighted during the Capacity Building phase is the degree of personnel turnover especially prevalent in high-need schools. While MSU Denver’s School of Education prioritizes the need for teacher candidates to have field experiences in high-need urban settings, logistical barriers are common.
Goals
1. Recruit and fund at least 50 U-STEM Scholars through graduation and hiring, when they become U-STEM Teachers
a. Increase the number of students recruited into and graduating from STEM licensure programs.
b. Increase diversity of students recruited into and graduating from STEM licensure programs.
2. Continuously improve collaborations with districts in meeting STEM teacher needs
a. Produce U-STEM Teachers prepared to teach in high-need districts.
b. Assist districts with professional development for STEM equity.
3. Establish an innovative induction program for U-STEM Teachers in high-need districts
a. Design seminars to support the development of content knowledge and STEM integration as well as instruction, assessment, and classroom management.
b. Mentor inservice U-STEM Teachers in the classroom to conduct formative observations, debrief, and plan based on the successful Lesson Study mentoring model currently used by U-STEM mathematics faculty.
c. Build an online professional learning community to support U-STEM Teachers in the field.
Approach
The Learning Assistant (LA) program was initiated during Capacity Building to help address the ongoing need of STEM courses acting as gatekeepers. The department of Secondary Teacher Education and the Noyce U-STEM team are working in collaboration with the STEM departments, advising, and financial aid to support multiple pathways into the program. Partnerships with high-needs schools that send higher numbers of students of color to MSU Denver have been an ongoing challenge because of structural issues. We are trying to build the new program’s policies by centering the students? voices.
Outcomes
* STEM courses serve as gatekeepers for many students, reducing the number of STEM majors and potential STEM teachers.
* The STEM teaching pipeline is leaky for all students, and especially students of color.
* Partnership challenges specific to collaboration with high-need schools
* Recruitment strategies to draw STEM majors to teaching are absent.
* Students need additional assistance navigating into and through the institution.
These capacity building outcomes were used to design the full Noyce S&S program at the university, centering the voices of the students.
Broader Impacts
Since the secondary education pathway at MSU Denver initiates as students become upperclassmen, little effort was made in the past to proactively address recruitment. Analysis of data pointed to the need to coordinate support much earlier with STEM programs overall, recruiting and supporting STEM students of color already underway for a larger and broader pool of candidates for STEM teaching and scholarships. A specific challenge to address is that student-friendly language is not necessarily consistent with Noyce and/or MSU Denver terminology; recruiting materials must be responsive to student needs and tastes. Students need additional assistance navigating into and through the institution. Students expressed a strong need for mentoring and information transparency, issues that have measurable implications for recruitment, retention, and graduation rates. There is also a need for smoother transitions between institutions’ creation of a ‘Student Success Professional’ was a direct result.
