- Year 2022
- NSF Noyce Award # 1758383
- First Name Corbett
- Last Name Redden
- Discipline Mathematics
- Co-PI(s)
Karleen Goubeaud & Louisa Vita, Long Island University; John Jerome, Suffolk County Community College
- Presenters
Corbett Redden and Karleen Goubeaud, Long Island University
Need
Although we tend to focus on the need to provide a diverse teacher corps to serve in urban schools, population shifts to the suburbs require equal consideration of teacher diversity. As of the 2010 census, for example, minorities constituted 35 percent of all people living in suburbs, and the outward migration of minority populations from inner city to suburbia keeps growing. Thus, rapidly changing demographics and shrinking financial resources have left many suburban school districts unprepared to meet the cultural and academic needs of their students, relying on educational strategies maintained by an older, more traditional teacher pool. These demographic changes are especially apparent in suburban Long Island, where LIU Post is located. Through its authentic collaborations, LIU Post’s Noyce program aims to provide a road map for recruiting, preparing and retaining a diverse corps of mathematics teachers to serve in high-needs schools in outer-city communities whose cultural and academic make-up research is beginning to address.
Goals
The Department of Mathematics & the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Long Island University Post (LIU Post), in collaboration with the Glen Cove School District, the South Huntington School District, and Suffolk County Community College, are implementing the Long Island Mathematics and Teacher Education Scholarship Program, a Track 1 NSF Noyce project. This five-year program is designed to improve the quality of teaching and learning of mathematics (grades 7-12) in high-needs secondary schools and to increase the pool of underrepresented mathematics teachers. The program will guide approximately 24 Scholars, broken into three cohorts, from their initial years in community college through their junior and senior years at LIU Post. This educational experience will include an intensive clinical residency in the secondary schools in the Glen Cove and South Huntington school districts, both in suburban communities with large minority populations; it will culminate in a B.S. Mathematics degree with a New York State initial teaching certification in secondary mathematics education (Grades 7-12). Annual scholarships of $20,000 will support each of these students for two years as they study mathematics in a small, nurturing, private university and transition to teaching mathematics in a high-need school district. A Noyce Internship Program will connect community college students to mathematics education resources and serve as a recruitment tool.
Approach
This multi-dimensional approach of LIU Post’s Noyce program includes the following: •Establishes and institutionalizes a nexus between a community college and four-year university (Suffolk Community College and LIU) to nominate and prepare a diverse corps of candidates trained in mathematics content and pedagogy;•Provides extensive scholarship and academic support for participating Scholars;•Provides an integrated program of studies developed collaboratively by mathematics and mathematics education faculty;•Provides in-depth clinical experiences in two high-needs suburban school districts (Glen Cove and South Huntington) under the supervision of a team of school-based mentors and university experts in mathematics preparation and practice.
Outcomes
Thus far, we have successfully implemented Advisory Board meetings with representatives from our partner high schools. Components of the Noyce program have been designed and implemented through this collaborative partnership. Furthermore, LIU and Suffolk Community College have collaboratively designed and implemented a Noyce Internship Program, providing community college students with mathematics educational resources and career-related activities. Evidence of program outcomes and effectiveness will be presented.
Broader Impacts
The Long Island Mathematics & Teacher Education Scholarship Program at LIU Post addresses several salient issues facing American society and American education, strongly affecting mathematics education and the development of a trained pool of mathematics teachers. These include: the rising debt incurred by students seeking a four-year college education, leaving that goal out of reach for many gifted millennials, particularly those from culturally diverse and economically disadvantaged backgrounds; the need to narrow the growing disparity between the ethnic and cultural make-up of our public school population and the teacher corps, particularly notable in STEM fields; and the need to develop school/university partnerships in suburban metropolitan areas in the throes of economic and cultural change. The LIU Post Noyce program seeks to respond to these issues and provide program participants with the mathematical and pedagogical content, centered on culturally responsive pedagogy, to enable them to work effectively in high-needs secondary schools.
