- Year 2016
- NSF Noyce Award # 1540826
- First Name Deborah
- Last Name Nolan
- Discipline STEM
- Co-PI(s)
Jessica Charles, UC Berkeley, jcharles@berkeley.edu; George Johnson, UC Berkeley, gjohnson@me.berkeley.edu; Elisa Stone, UC Berkeley, gemstone@berkeley.edu
- Presenters
Devin Richards, UC Berkeley, devinpr@berkeley.edu
Need
The Phase 2 Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program will build on the growing Cal Teach program for STEM undergraduate teacher preparation at Berkeley where students simultaneously earn disciplinary degrees, enroll in education coursework, and engage in a variety of fieldwork teaching in K-12 classrooms. This integrated approach to teacher preparation has been shown to be critical in the context of preparing secondary math and science teachers for our nation’s neediest schools, for which high quality teachers are severely lacking. During Phase 2, Cal Teach Berkeley will leverage a new collaboration with UC Merced to offer its STEM undergraduates education courses at both campuses and a credential at Berkeley. Partnerships established during Phase 1 will be strengthened with key district partners, and we will broaden our service of California high needs schools in the urban setting of the San Francisco Bay Area to those in the rural Central Valley. We will also strengthen our engagement with a variety of informal education organizations and other community partners, which we expect to continue to positively influence the commitment of our undergraduates to teach in local schools. During the proposed funding period, teachers supported by the Phase 1 program will range from being in their first to ninth years of teaching. This will provide a compelling opportunity to undertake a longitudinal study on the effects of an integrated teacher education model on teacher retention, classroom practices, and student learning. Strong ties between Cal Teach faculty from the STEM content areas at Merced and Berkeley, and education faculty at the Berkeley Graduate School of Education will allow us to reach our goals.
Goals
To support the recruitment and retention of highly qualified pre-service teachers, internships and scholarship opportunities are offered. Cal Teach Berkeley awards funded summer internships to lower division students at local informal math science institutions. For the recruitment and retention of highly qualified STEM majors, Noyce Scholarships are awarded to upper division students who commit to completing their disciplinary degree, to obtaining their teaching credential, and to teaching math or science in a high-need school. We present our preliminary findings from a Phase I Noyce award and discuss how these findings influenced the design of our Phase II Noyce program as we seek to further research sustaining and evaluating STEM teacher quality and retention at Cal Teach Berkeley.
Approach
The University of California (UC) Berkeley is pleased to submit a Track 1 Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarships & Stipends (S&S) Phase 2 proposal in partnership with UC Merced, Berkeley and Oakland Unified School Districts; Merced City School District; Lawrence Hall of Science; California Academy of Science; Exploratorium; and Oakland Zoo. The Phase 2 Noyce Scholarship program at Berkeley will further support undergraduate majors in science, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to explore K-12 teaching and receive their secondary science and math teaching credentials simultaneously with their STEM disciplinary degrees. This program will provide scholarships in the amount of $10,000 to 43 students over five years, and offer paid summer internships at informal education institutions ($2000) and classroom-intensive externships ($500) for an additional 60 lower-division students, thus supporting over 100 students to engage in teacher education in math or science. The Phase 2 program will also allow Cal Teach to initiate a longitudinal evaluation, continuing to follow in-service teachers supported by Phase 1 funding and beginning to follow those supported by Phase 2 funding.
Outcomes
We anticipate that Noyce funding will support over 100 students to engage in teacher education in math or science. Specific aims for the proposed Cal Teach Berkeley Noyce program are to:
** Support 43 committed upper-division Cal Teach students to receive Noyce scholarships ($10,000), including qualified STEM undergraduates from our collaborating program at UC Merced who will receive their credential through UC Berkeley;
** Recruit an additional 60 lower-division students into teaching by providing summer internships at informal science institutions ($2000) and K-12 classroom-intensive externships ($500);
** Strengthen our partnership with the urban Berkeley and Oakland Unified School Districts in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Merced City School District in the rural Central Valley;
** Engage in the informal educational efforts for other partner institutions, including the Lawrence Hall of Science, Oakland Zoo, California Academy of Science, and Exploratorium;
** Build a community of Cal Teach graduates teaching both urban and rural youth in high needs schools through a variety of professional development activities; and
** Perform longitudinal study of Cal Teach graduates, share findings with national teacher education community, and contribute to best practices in STEM teacher education.
Broader Impacts
Cal Teach is committed to equity in education for every student, promoting social justic through mathematics and science learning. The Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program will allow us to bring outstanding STEM undergraduates who share this commitment into Cal Teach to earn their teaching credentials in math or science. Cal Teach has a focus on teaching in urban schools that are often under-served. The Phase 2 project will build on the success of the Phase 1 program by continuing to create a more diverse pool of new teachers that match the diversity of our local regions and of the state, who will effectively engage diverse California K-12 students in math and science learning. Finally, Cal Teach will expand research efforts by studying the impact of teacher education at Berkeley and Merced, and share findings of our longitudinal study with state and national teacher education communities.
