Developing a Program to Meet the Need for Prepared and Diverse STEM Teachers in Houston

This project aims to serve the national need for increased numbers and diversity of highly qualified STEM teachers and educational leaders. Public schools face a shortage of STEM teachers, especially those with a STEM degree and who represent the diversity of the community they are serving. This shortage likely limits K-12 student STEM learning and may decrease their interest in pursuing further education in STEM.

As a result, the lack of highly qualified STEM teachers can affect representation of underrepresented minorities in the STEM workforce. Houston Baptist University is a four-year undergraduate Hispanic-Serving Institution in Houston, Texas, one of the most diverse cities in the nation. The demographics of students at the University mirror those of the K-12 students in the Houston area.

The project includes collaboration with the Lone Star College System, a public community college system and the largest institution of higher learning in the Houston area. Through this collaboration, the project aims to develop a program to prepare students to become K-12 teachers and leaders by obtaining both a Bachelor of Science degree in a STEM major and a Master of Education degree.

This capacity building project also aims to identify ways to retain these prepared and diverse educators in the Houston area. The development of this program will provide an alternate career route for STEM majors that is designed to address a shortage of prepared and diverse educators in the community.

This project at Houston Baptist University includes partnerships with the Lone Star College System and Houston Independent School District. The primary goal of this project is to develop and implement plans for a five-year BS/MEd pathway for STEM majors to earn their teaching licensure in a fifth-year program and eventually enter the Houston workforce as STEM teachers and education leaders.

Project aims include: 1) increasing capacity for student success in STEM; 2) expanding capacity of the Houston Baptist University curriculum for STEM teaching licensure; and 3) strengthening capacity for professional development for STEM educators. This project seeks to identify challenges that lead to the persistent shortage of qualified and diverse STEM educators in Houston Independent School District.

The needs of college students pursuing a STEM degree, STEM teachers, and local K-12 school administrators will be assessed to determine capacity for continuous growth of the program. If successful, development of the program has the potential to serve as a model for understanding STEM teacher shortages in urban school districts serving predominantly underrepresented students.

Findings also have potential to be applied to other institutions with student groups experiencing similar challenges preventing them from remaining in the community and serving through teaching. This Capacity Building 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.