- Year 2019
- NSF Noyce Award # 1758353
- First Name Tanya
- Last Name Berezovski
- Discipline Biology, Chemistry, Math, Other: STEM Education, Physics
- Co-PI(s)
Victor Donnay, Bryn Mawr College, vdonnay@brynmawr.edu; Augusto Macalalag, Arcadia University, macalalaga@arcadia.edu; Greer Richardson, La Salle University, richards@lasalle.edu; Susan Varnum, Temple University, susan.varnum@temple.edu
- Presenters
Tanya Berezovski, Saint Joseph’s University, tberezov@sju.edu
Need
The workshop will offer a critical analysis of the challenges and opportunities that the Philadelphia Regional Noyce Partnership partners experienced as they conducted collaborative work across diverse institutions during the first year of their collaborative Noyce Scholarship project. An examination of this work is important as a model for other multi-institutional partnerships as they strive to recruit, develop and retain STEM teachers in high need areas.
Goals
Can vastly different regional STEM-minded institutions work within and across their respective institutional ‘silos’ to achieve the common goal of preparing and supporting high quality STEM teachers?
Approach
The partnership is inspired by social network theory (Stephenson, 2006), which posits that positive and unexpected synergies will occur and social capital will increase when trusted relationships are built between previously unconnected individuals and organizations.
Outcomes
The key outcomes for the project include the following: In-depth collaboration of the partner institutions, building inter-institutional infrastructure to: develop and implement the recruitment process; target and bring student candidates to the table; develop recruitment materials both graphic and digital; develop a standard promissory note Awarding of Noyce Scholarships: Through the recruitment efforts a total of (9) nine math and science majors have been awarded Noyce Scholarships this year. Success in recruiting minority and under-represented students: The project felt strongly that a focus on recruiting minority students was critical. As indicated in the above chart, seven (7) out of the nine (9) students receiving scholarships are students from minority or under-represented groups. Development of a Framework and Curriculum for the Cohort 1 Development of a Summer Internship Program.
Broader Impacts
While Philadelphia is a racially diverse city with greater than 50% non-white residents it is also the poorest of the nation’s ten largest cities with a third of its children living below the poverty line. This situation is mirrored in the School District of Philadelphia (SDP), a large urban district with 8,400 teachers educating 134,538 K-12 primarily non-white students (51) in its 218 schools. According to NSF’s definition, SDP is high-need with more than three-fourth of the children attending qualifying for free or reduced lunch (62). Every school in the district exceeds the “low-income school” threshold of 30%, with all schools having a low-income rate of 44% or greater (62). The challenges associated with serving a low-income and diverse student population are magnified by the precarious funding situation the District has faced in recent years, with large cuts in state funding causing the district to struggle to balance its budget.
