- Year 2018
- NSF Noyce Award # 1439914
- First Name Ann
- Last Name Cavallo
- Discipline Other: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics
- Co-PI(s)
Gregory Hale
, The University of Texas at Arlington
, greg@hale.uta.eduRamon Lopez
, The University of Texas at Arlington
, relopez@uta.eduJames Alvarez
, The University of Texas at Arlington
, james.alvarez@uta.edu - Presenters
Gregory Hale
, The University of Texas at Arlington
, greg@hale.uta.eduRamon Lopez
, The University of Texas at Arlington
, relopez@uta.eduJames Alvarez
, The University of Texas at Arlington
, james.alvarez@uta.edu
Need
The nation continues to endure a critical need for highly qualified science and mathematics teachers, with the greatest need in high-poverty urban and rural districts. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2014), more than 700,000 new teachers are needed in the next 10 years. Thus, in many US schools today, students are being taught by teachers who did not major in the STEM subject they are teaching, with the highest percentage being students in urban, high poverty schools. This current situation presents a clear and urgent need to recruit and prepare science and mathematics teachers specifically prepared to teach in our urban school districts where they are most needed. Texas and the DFW Metropolitan area in particular are currently experiencing severe shortages in science and mathematics teachers – a shortage being successfully and significantly addressed through the NSF Noyce program at UTA.
Goals
The program objectives are to: 1) recruit physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics teacher candidates from baccalaureate programs, community colleges, and career changers from local industry, 2) provide a quality teacher certification program for our candidates, and 3) induct, monitor, and mentor our teacher candidates through the program and their early years of teaching. Key activities of this program are: • Recruit candidates from UTA and area community college science and mathematics programs and from the Dallas-Arlington-Fort Worth metropolitan area science and math related businesses and industry. • Implement a high quality program for our teacher candidates through our collaborative College of Science and College of Education NCATE/CAEP approved teacher education programs, including UTeach Arlington. • Provide candidates with access to academic and professional resources, and help them become members of a community of learners throughout their teacher preparation program, their induction into teaching, and beyond. • Form and support cohort groups led by university Education and Science faculty and link candidates with school-based Mentor Teachers to guide field experiences and induction, and provide continued teaching support. • Engage candidates in learning and gaining skill in implementing research-based, inquiry teaching models (learning cycle/5E), project- and problem-based teaching experiences, classroom action research, curriculum development, reflective practice, and in the sharing of findings, curricula, and reflections via regular Noyce Scholar Learning Seminars, electronic interactions, and professional presentations. • Implement a research and evaluation plan that provides data on the project’s effectiveness in recruiting, preparing, inducting, and retaining teacher candidates, and that measures their professional development as teachers and teacher leaders through the program. • Disseminate findings and best practices of this project through research, and scholarly publications and presentations at professional conferences.
Approach
This Noyce project provides scholarships to STEM education students at UTA; a designated Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) consisting of a large population of first generation college students. Noyce Scholars are prepared to teach through either the UTeach Arlington undergraduate program or the post-baccalaureate/M.Ed.T. program. Noyce Scholars are provided with continued support and mentoring in their programs through induction into teaching. In addition to the scholarship, project goals are achieved by implementing strategies designed promote Scholars’ strong preparation and to support teaching retention. Program strategies include, Scholar’s participation in 4 per semester Scholar Learning Seminars; designated Faculty Content and Pedagogy Mentors; a Noyce Scholar Leader who visits each Scholar in their first years of teaching; a school-based Mentor teacher, and; collaborations with other Noyce programs across the US where Scholars engage in unique and meaningful STEM experiences.
Outcomes
This Noyce program continues to broaden the pipeline of STEM teacher candidates – as graduates from our local high need school districts, and returning to those same schools as teachers, mentors, and role models to our next generation of high school students. To measure program impacts, Noyce Scholars are given open ended and Likert-scale surveys at three points in their program, pre-program, mid-program, and post-program. The pre-program surveys are given upon accepting the Noyce Scholarship and entering the program; the mid-program surveys are completed at the time of graduation and prior to teaching and; post-program surveys are given after teaching at least 1 year in a high need school. Data is also collected from Mentor teachers on our Scholar’s effectiveness, and demographic information is maintained on their retention in teaching in high-need school districts. The results of data collection and analyses will be presented in the final poster.
Broader Impacts
The broader impacts are the recruitment, preparation, and induction of highly qualified teachers in the needed areas of physics, chemistry, life science, and math to teach in our high need school districts. Upon completion of the program, thousands of students in our DFW area will have our NSF Noyce Scholars as their teachers. Successes and lessons learned have been and will be presented at professional conferences, and published in scholarly journals. This poster will feature our program model, present results of research on Noyce Scholars from this and previous UTA Noyce programs, and share best practices and evaluation outcomes.
