- Year 2019
- NSF Noyce Award # 1339963
- First Name Anne
- Last Name Seitsinger
- Institution University of Rhode Island
- Role/Position Principal Investigator, Associate Dean
- Workshop Category Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends
- Workshop Disciplines Audience Biological
- Target Audience School and District Administrators
- Topics Supporting New Teachers
- Session Length 30 minutes
Goals
1) To share what we are learning about supporting beginning STEM teachers in urban schools
2) Learn what others have found to be helpful
Evidence
Assessment of inductees skills and needs using Noyce Scholar Exit Survey of Professional Teaching Standards (Boulmetis, 2013): Skill preparation in Subject Matter Knowledge, Planning, Instruction, Family/Community Engagement, Professionalism, and Assessment; confidence in these skills and importance of these skills to beginning teachers; responses on scale of 1 (not at all) to 4 (very).
Interviews each fall and spring. Asked them how they were doing? How could we continue to support their teaching? Sample: 14 Noyce Scholars who had taught for at least 1 year in high-need school districts in Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.
Proposal
A continued need exists for highly-qualified teachers, especially in mathematics and science in high-needs schools (HNS). Nationally-sponsored efforts such as NSF’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program support IHE trying to attract and support STEM teacher candidates to work in HNS. This mixed-methods study uses a survey and candidate interviews to understand the experiences and needs of first-year teachers/inductees who successfully completed a Noyce-supported teacher preparation program and are now teaching full time in a HNS. Inductees indicate aspects of teaching to be considered as we continue to support these candidates. Concerns include access to mentoring, the challenging nature of addressing students’ needs, and access to high quality curriculum and technology.
