Preparing Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Computer Science Secondary School Teachers with Skills in Culturally Responsive Teaching

This project aims to serve the national need for a greater number of highly qualified STEM teachers. To do so, it plans to increase the number of STEM undergraduates who decide to pursue teaching careers. These emerging teachers will develop skills in culturally responsive teaching and asset-based perspectives to increase their effectiveness as teachers in high-need school districts.

The project centers on supporting a pathway for community college STEM students to transfer to a four-year institution, complete their STEM baccalaureate degrees, and enter a STEM teacher preparation program. This pathway is intended to increase the number and diversity of highly qualified secondary STEM teachers, including individuals from low-income, first-generation, and/or military service backgrounds.

The project will provide service-learning and STEM-based community activities to encourage STEM majors to explore teaching as a career. These activities will also form the foundation of a learning community in which preservice and new in-service STEM teachers can share and receive support.

This project at Sacred Heart University includes partnerships with Housatonic Community College and Ansonia, Bridgeport, and Stratford Public Schools. The project goal is to increase the number of highly qualified STEM teachers and their effectiveness in high need schools. Over the five-year project, 18 biology, chemistry, mathematics, and computer science majors will earn bachelor’s degrees followed by a fifth year in which they will earn teacher certification in Connecticut and the state-required Master of Arts in Teaching.

Individual Noyce Scholars may receive up to three years of support and will be required to serve as a classroom teacher in a high-need school district for two years for each of the scholarship years received. The project aims to develop the Scholars’ professional identities as highly effective STEM educators, enhance programming in culturally responsive pedagogy, and emphasize the importance of viewing high-need school populations through a strength-based lens.

A longitudinal study will investigate the impact of increased familiarity with high-need communities on students’ assumptions about teaching in low-income urban schools. It will also examine the impacts of an undergraduate seminar and extensive field experiences on students’ intercultural competence. The project team expects to disseminate evidence regarding the developed curriculum, the efficacy of preparing preservice teachers in cultural competency, the value of service-learning, and the success of mentorship for novice teachers.

This Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends project is supported through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (Noyce). The Noyce program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers and experienced, exemplary K-12 teachers to become STEM master teachers in high-need school districts. It also supports research on the persistence, retention, and effectiveness of K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.