- Year 2018
- NSF Noyce Award # 1540769
- First Name Judith
- Last Name Quander
- Discipline Math
- Co-PI(s)
Jacqueline Sack, University of Houston Downtown, sackj@uhd.edu
- Presenters
Jacqueline Sack, University of Houston Downtown, sackj@uhd.edu
Need
(a) This project provides pre-service teachers (PSTs) extended field experiences in urban schools, prior to their student teaching semester, to prepare them for success when they begin their teaching careers.
(b) Typically, new teachers are assigned to ethnically diverse classes that have large numbers of under-prepared students, who may have been retained several times, and who will never attain college readiness.
Goals
(a) UHD’s Noyce ESPRIT program is open to anyone with a STEM degree who wants to earn a MAT (Master’s of Arts in Teaching) and secondary STEM teacher certification. Students have the added option of taking 18 hours of graduate Mathematics or Science so that they are eligible to teach dual-credit courses at the high-school level and to teach lower-level undergraduate courses at 2- and 4- year institutions.
(b) Students engage in extended field experiences prior to a semester of student teaching, in concert with carefully developed math methods/content courses for teachers that are co-taught by the PI and Co-PI of this project, to prepare scholars for success in ethnically diverse classrooms. The PI and Co-PI also supports its teachers by visiting their classrooms; holding PD meetings with all of its Noyce scholars and teachers each semester; and working with any teacher who reaches out for help.
Approach
(a) The field experience aspect of the project is part of a much larger component of the university’s educator preparation program (EPP). Students engage with a mentor teacher in his/her field-based classroom, helping out with anything the mentor needs, and also teaching two personally developed lessons that are evaluated by a UHD field instructor. When they enter their 15-week, full-time student teaching semester, they know exactly what is expected and are used to the typical urban population of students they will teach after completing the certification program. The state education board ranks programs on the number of graduate teachers who are still teaching after 5 years. UHD’s retention rate is over 80%, while the next best program is about 50%.
(b) With respect to our Noyce TCC’s, we try to place our PSTs with strong mentor teachers, including some of our Noyce graduates, who we know and trust to support our students well.
Outcomes
Our undergraduate Noyce project boasts over 20 mathematics teachers who continue to be successful in their classrooms, in part through our care and ongoing relationships that are part of our focus. The Noyce ESPRIT project is still in its infancy, but field experiences for its first fellows will likely begin in the Fall, 2018 semester.
We expect to graduate about 20 STEM teachers.
Broader Impacts
a) The broader impacts of the project include our high retention rate of induction year teachers from our undergraduate Noyce project. We expect high retention rates from this graduate project.
b) Public secondary schools will be impacted in that our graduates will likely be qualified to also teach dual credit courses, that provide high school credit and also 2-year or 4-year institutional credit.
c) The Noyce ESPRIT project is still in its infancy. We anticipate dissemination opportunities to AERA, AMTE and to math education publications in the next couple of years.
