- Year 2018
- NSF Noyce Award # 1540704
- First Name Jane
- Last Name Coffee
- Discipline Other: Math, Biology, Chemisty, Physics
- Co-PI(s)
Irina Lyublinskaya, College of Staten Island, irina.lyublinskya@csi.cuny.edu
Susan Sullivan, College of Staten Island, susan.sullivan@csi.cuny.edu
Nelly Tournaki, College of Staten Island, nelly.tournaki@csi.cuny.edu - Presenters
Jane Coffee, College of Staten Island, jane.coffee@csi.cuny.edu
Stephanie Sheehan, Port Richmond HS, sheehansh@gmail.com
Samantha Haimowitz, New Dorp HS, samanthahaimowitz@yahoo.com
Stephanie Palumbo, New Dorp HS, spalumbo92@yahoo.com
Need
There is a recognized need for STEM graduates who are knowledgeable in their majors, have significant experience in the classroom, and plan to have a career teaching in high-need high schools and middle schools. The traditional accredited STEM majors in mathematics, biology, chemistry, and physics have prepared graduates well in their disciplines but a semester of student teaching has not been sufficient to make them effective teachers. Using medical residency as a model, we have structured internships in host schools for every semester that a student is in the Teacher Academy to give Noyce scholars meaningful experiences in host schools that differ in size, demographics, organization, classroom management, and teaching styles. Our Noyce Scholars were honors students in high school and middle school, but they are most likely not to teach honors students?at least at the beginning of their teaching career. They need to learn how to teach ALL students.
Goals
The basic goal of this project is to produce well-prepared graduates who are knowledgeable in their discipline and very experienced in teaching and classroom management, so they can be effective teachers from their first day of teaching in a school culture that they understand and that they want to teach in. The goal is to achieve high retention of Noyce scholars as teachers in high-need schools and thus develop a professional cohort of teachers who are making teaching a long-term career and will have a sustained impact on their schools.
This project benefits:
1. The Noyce Scholars who have significant teaching experiences in very different classrooms and schools and have a basis to decide what kind of school culture most suits them and where they would like to become teachers of record.
2. The principals and assistant principals in the host schools who have an opportunity to vet the Noyce Scholars over a significant period and see them mature as pre-service teachers. Many of our graduates have been hired at host schools or at other schools based on recommendations from host school principals.
3. The College of Staten Island that has an honors program dedicated to future STEM teachers that is recognized for its quality graduates in the community.
Approach
The Robert Noyce Teacher Academy is a junior/senior part of the Teacher Education Honors Academy (TEHA) at the College of Staten Island. Students are eligible to apply to the Robert Noyce Teacher Academy after at least one year in TEHA. Students in TEHA participate in a host school internship (5 hours per week for 10 weeks during every semester that they are in TEHA). It is this host school internship that distinguishes this project from the standard STEM major with a sequence of adolescence education courses that include student teaching. Noyce Scholars who began as freshman in TEHA will have had 350 hours of increasing teaching experience in high-need classrooms at both the high school and middle school level BEFORE they student teach. They will have spent at least 50 hours at as many as 7 different schools.
Outcomes
The host schools for Noyce Scholars include 10 high schools and 3 middle schools. Over 130 collaborating teachers in these host schools have mentored Noyce Scholars and have often been advocates for Noyce Scholars seeking jobs in their schools. This project includes an opportunity for international teaching internships. To date, ten of the Noyce Scholars have participated in internships in the Galapagos Islands, St. Petersburg, Russia, Vladimir, Russia, and Morocco. Each internship has included a panel discussion on STEM teaching in New York City and the inclusive classroom, a classroom lesson, and classroom observations. These educational exchanges have given useful insights to Noyce Scholars whose classes in New York City are multi-cultural and multi-lingual. Through June 2017, there have been 33 Noyce graduates. Thirty-one graduates are teaching in 13 different high schools and 1 middle school–24 in math, 3 in biology, 3 in chemistry, and 1 in physics.
Broader Impacts
All Noyce Scholars who were eligible for tenure have been awarded it. To date, there is a 97% retention rate with only 1 graduate taking a leave of absence for family reasons after fulfilling her Noyce commitment. We expect to expand to more Brooklyn high schools and middle schools?both as host schools and as schools where are graduates are hired. The most significant impact has been felt by the students in STEM classes in high-need schools taught by these Noyce graduates. A longitudinal study is now in progress to study this impact. Presentations have been made at the College of Staten Island Open Houses, at College Nights at Staten Island high schools, and at Undergraduate Research Conferences at CSI.
