- Year 2017
- NSF Noyce Award # 1540704
- First Name Jane
- Last Name Coffee
- Discipline Other: All STEM majors
- Co-PI(s)
Irina Lyublinskaya, College of Staten Island, irina.lyublinskaya@csi.cuny.edu
Susan Sullivan, College of Staten Island, susan.sullivan@csi.cuny.edu
Eleni Tournaki, College of Staten Island, nelly.tournaki@csi.cuny.edu - Presenters
Irina Lyublinskaya, College of Staten Island, irina.lyublinskaya@csi.cuny.edu
Need
The 17 Noyce scholars who were funded under phase 1 and the additional 10 Noyce graduates who were funded under phase 2 were all hired in high-need schools where many had spent internships during their participation in the Noyce program. The principals wanted to hire new teachers who were well-prepared in their STEM disciplines and were knowledgeable about the culture of their school. Through the host school internship program the principals know our Noyce scholars and the Noyce scholars know the school. 100% of our Noyce graduates who have been hired in these high-need schools have been retained. There is no revolving door. Our Noyce graduates plan to be career STEM teachers in high need schools.
This project benefits the students in STEM classes in high need schools, the principals who want to hire effective teachers, and Noyce scholars who want a career as a STEM teacher.
Goals
To graduate honors majors in mathematics, biology, chemistry, and physics that have had significant internship experience in high need high schools and middle schools, are prepared to be effective new teachers and plan to remain as career teachers.
Every semester CSI Noyce scholars spend a minimum of 5 hours per week for 10 weeks. They rotate after each semester to one of 7 high schools or 3 middle schools that are high-need schools. Each semester there is a fieldwork seminar for the partnering high need host school faculty and administrators, current members of the Teacher Education Honors Academy that includes the Noyce scholars, and college faculty from the STEM and Education Departments.
Noyce scholars participate in a New York City Department of Education Summer School teaching internship. In summer 2016, 2 Noyce Scholars interned at Port Richmond High School. It is anticipated that 2 Noyce Scholars (current juniors) will intern in this program.
Two Professional Development workshops for Noyce Scholars on Classroom Management and the Smart Board by Noyce co-PIs in March 2017.
In April 2017, 5 Noyce graduate in-service teachers (2 math, 2 chemistry, 1 biology) participated in an International Teaching Internship at Valdimir State University in Valdimir, Russia. They had the opportunity to observe the teaching of a topic and then teach the same topic in the next class as well as participation in a round table discussions: ?STEM teacher preparation in US?what it takes to be a teacher in New York City? and ?Inclusion and Special Education?Teaching STEM disciplines to All children.? This program was organized and supervised by a Noyce co-PI.
Approach
Significant internship time is spent in different high-need school settings. Students learn about the different school cultures and the teachers and administrators in these schools have an opportunity to evaluate the growth of these students while they are still undergraduates. Surveys are completed by the collaborating teachers and Noyce scholars every semester and incorporated in a longitudinal study.
The model of medical residency is the framework for the host school internships. Noyce scholars are assigned greater responsibilities in the classroom as they progress through the program–from guided observations, to individual tutoring, to group tutoring, to ‘do nows’, to lesson planning, to part of a lesson, to a complete lesson. When Noyce scholars do their student teaching, they are assigned a classroom.
Collaborating teachers and administrators at 10 high need host schools–7 high schools and 3 middle schools, Noyce scholars, students in STEM classes at the host schools.
Outcomes
Significant internship experience with increasing teaching responsibilities while still an undergraduate provides a real-life experience for future teachers. Principals are able to observe possible future hires in real classrooms in their schools. All the host schools are high-need but differ in size, ethnic majority, and all of them with many different native languages. Noyce scholars have enough experience to make a reasoned judgement of the type of school that they prefer.
Phase 1 Noyce Grant (2010-2015) and phase 2 to date have funded 27 Noyce graduates who are teaching in high need schools in New York City– 21 are teaching mathematics in 14 high schools and 1 middle school, 3 are teaching biology in 3 high schools and 3 are teaching chemistry in 3 high schools. The teacher retention rate for all the Noyce graduates is 100%.
A longitudinal study of Noyce graduates from phase 1 and 2.
A ‘reunion’ of graduate and current Noyce scholars in fall 2017.
Broader Impacts
It is possible – although not easy – to recruit honors students in the STEM disciplines who want to teach in high need schools, to provide them with financial and academic support through their undergraduate years, to give them real and significant teaching internship experiences in high need schools, to produce graduates that are considered the ?gold standard? by principals who hire them, and to have these Noyce scholars become effective career teachers who consider teaching to be a lifelong career.
The students in the STEM courses in the high need schools where Noyce graduates have been hired and the Noyce scholars who have been prepared and hired to be the next generation of STEM teachers.
Undergraduate Research Conference presentations at CSI
Publication in College of Staten Island Newsmakers
Publication in 13th International Congress on Mathematical Education, July 2016
Presentation at Limacon Math Conference,SUNY Old Westbury, March 2017
