- Year 2024
- NSF Noyce Award # 1950292
- First Name Li
- Last Name Feng
- Institution Texas State University
- Role/Position Principal Investigator (PI)
- Proposal Type Workshop
- Workshop Category Track 4: Noyce Research
- Workshop Disciplines Audience Chemistry, Computer Science, Geosciences, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Physics, STEM Education (general)
- Target Audience Co-PIs, Evaluators/Education Researchers, Noyce Master Teachers, Noyce Teaching Fellows, Other Faculty/Staff, Project PIs, Undergraduate and/or Graduate Noyce Scholars
- Topics Lessons learned from developing/implementing a Track 1 project / Track 2 project / Track 3 project / or Track 4 Research project, Partnerships for Success (High-need schools/informal institutions/industry/community)
- Additional Presenter(s)
Mike Hansen, Brookings Institution, PI, mhansen@brookings.edu; David Kumar, Florida Atlantic University, PI, david@fau.edu; Ann Cavallo, University of Texas at Arlington, PI, cavallo@uta.edu; John Pecore, University of West Florida, PI, jpecore@uwf.edu; Maria Fernandez, Florida International University, PI, mfernan@fiu.edu; Eleanor Close, Texas State University, co-PI, hgclose@txstate.edu
Goals
In this session, participants will gain valuable insights into the impact of Noyce teacher scholarships on the STEM workforce in high-need school districts. Specifically, attendees will have the opportunity to learn about the research findings of our team and how Noyce programs can effectively recruit, retain, and develop talented teachers for partnering school districts. We will provide a general description of the STEM teacher workforce in high-need schools/school districts settings. The second objective will shed light on the impact of the Noyce programs on local teacher shortage and some preliminary evidence on teacher effectiveness. Lastly, we will present our initial findings on how our collaborating partners produce a robust teacher pipeline to meet the local public school district’s demand for high quality teachers. Representatives from four collaborating Noyce programs, including the University of Texas at Arlington, Texas State University, University of West Florida, and Florida International University, will share their experience and approaches. By attending this session, participants will gain valuable knowledge about designing effective programs to solve local teacher shortages. This session is designed to be beneficial to all Noyce project PIs/co-PIs, as well as school and district administrators who are interested in tackling teacher shortages and improving STEM education in high-need areas.
Evidence
Our content is backed by our research findings, including analysis of several national datasets such as the Schools and Staffing Surveys (SASS), the National Teachers and Principal Survey (NTPS), NSF award data, and geographic data on both public-school districts and postsecondary institutions. We show that STEM teacher workforce in high-need settings has shown resilience over time. This resilience is attributed to a combination of coping strategies including increasing compensation in disadvantaged settings, increasing reliance on internationally trained teachers, and reducing STEM course offerings. However, STEM teachers in high-need settings are the most likely segment of the workforce to turnover, and while STEM teacher vacancies are common across all school settings, the difficulty of filling the vacancy is strongly different by high-need school status. It’s also noted that teacher vacancies are imperfect measures of workforce health, as many schools with unqualified and low STEM offerings do not report vacancies.We have utilized difference-in-difference models to estimate an Intent-to-Treat (ITT) effect of the impact of the Noyce program on relevant STEM workforce outcomes. Our analysis indicates that Noyce scholarship has increased both the number and quality of STEM teachers in nearby high-needs schools, leading to a lower school vacancy rate and a lower likelihood of having trouble filling math, physics, and biology teacher positions.From a recent alumni survey, we find that that a majority of Noyce program participants were already inclined towards STEM teaching, with the program further solidifying this career path. While some wouldn’t have considered teaching without the scholarship, half of this group now see teaching as a lifelong career. Interestingly, a significant portion of those who initially considered teaching are now unlikely to continue in this profession. The program appears to have influenced participants to teach in high-need schools, even among those initially disinclined. The majority of respondents are currently teaching, predominantly in high-need schools, with no significant correlation found between teaching status and gender or minority status.
Proposal
This project is a collaboration between three core research institutions, namely Texas State University, Florida Atlantic University, and The Brookings Institution, and four collaborating institutions with Noyce programs, namely Texas State University, University of Texas at Arlington, University of West Florida, and Florida International University. By utilizing local and national databases, the project team aims to present initial findings on the supply of STEM teachers in the school districts they serve, with a focus on high-need settings. The project’s overarching goal is to generate evidence-based policy solutions and promote a better understanding of how Noyce projects influence the STEM teacher workforce via answering three sets of interrelated research questions: 1a) What are the characteristics of STEM teachers teaching in high-need schools and how have these changed over time? 1b) How are schools and districts coping with the constrained supply of STEM teachers? 2a) What is the estimated impact of the Noyce program on the STEM teacher workforce in high-need school districts? and (2b) Do high-need school districts near Noyce institutions experience fewer STEM teacher vacancies and improve their chances of filling those vacancies in math and science? (3a) What are the demographics and qualifications of the STEM teacher candidate pool, and how do they change during the training process?
