- Year 2017
- NSF Noyce Award # 1555634
- First Name Debra
- Last Name Poese
- Discipline Other: All STEM fields
- Presenters
Same
Need
Since 2006, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) and Montgomery College have collaborated on an alternative certification partnership program designed to bring career changers from STEM fields (and other high need areas, such as world languages) into the county’s secondary classrooms. However, we are collaborating on a Teacher Workforce Diversity Initiative as well.
Strengthening our partnership with MCPS to reach out to their current paraprofessionals and to underrepresented minorities within our community is a strong component of the recruitment efforts for MC NEXT STEM. It is our intention to provide results which can be useful to other urban area school systems who seek a diverse STEM teaching pool.
Goals
The primary goal for this Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarships and Stipends Phase I project is to increase the number and diversity of highly qualified STEM teachers going into the secondary classroom. Two parallel objectives support this goal and this poster will address the components of the first major objective: Broadening and Improving the Alternative Certification Pathway.
? Provide stipends for STEM professionals to become teachers
? Develop new recruitment activities to enhance candidate application pool
? Enhance selection process activities
? Develop program modifications for the ACET Teacher Certification Program
? Monitoring and enforcement of required teaching commitment
Approach
We began the use of the Haberman Star Teacher Pre-Screener assessment for each applicant who was invited to the interview stage. In this initial year of use, the results are being used as a comparative to performance during the candidate preparation and internship phase.
New recruitment strategies which have been implemented include initial outreach to several leadership groups in Montgomery County and providing program information through our college’s Community Engagement Centers.
A complete set of assessment rubrics was developed to use in providing accurate and useful feedback to program participants.
Outcomes
Changes to the application process, including the new pre-screening assessment, should yield significant comparative data between the cohorts as the project progresses.
Recruitment activities for the next cohort entry point are aligned with the project?s larger diversity goals. Targeting specific underrepresented groups in a variety of mediums and languages, as well as leveraging the College?s Community Engagement Centers represent a thoughtful and deliberate approach to supplement traditional recruitment efforts.
The implementation, use, and success of these assessment rubrics to create appropriate program changes will be included in the Year 2 report for this grant.
Broader Impacts
Having just begun our second year of the project, we are beginning to see results we can measure. The new recruiting year will hopefully provide a more diverse set of applicants, and we will also be tracking the progress of the initial six stipend recipients in terms of retention and performance based on program modifications and the support provided by the stipend.
