Exploration of a Labs to Classrooms Teaching Fellowship Program for Career-Changing STEM Professionals

This project aims to serve the national need for building capacity to prepare working professionals in science, technology, engineering, and math to transition to and succeed in teaching positions. These career changers, often employed in labs or other manufacturing positions, will become fully qualified and adequately supported STEM teachers in the Nation’s schools.

The project will explore the design of an accelerated fully online Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program to provide initial teaching licenses and support for induction into the teaching profession for these career changers. As part of this Capacity Building project, avenues of access will be designed to allow working professionals the quality, flexibility, and collaboration needed for success in the redesigned online master’s degree.

The project will also be responsive to the ongoing needs of busy working adults throughout the process. The expected outcomes of this capacity building exploration will identify enrollment targets, unique marketing strategies, and support structures needed to ensure development of a successful model program.

This project at Dordt University (DU) explores the partnerships needed with the university’s constituencies around the country. Its focus will be on school districts and school associations in the immediate region and in areas that are part of DU’s network of 80 historically connected pockets of DU constituents around the U.S. currently seeking STEM teachers.

Project goals include soliciting input from stakeholders, assessing needs for STEM teachers in constituent areas, and assessing interest among STEM graduates. Another goal is to evaluate existing graduate and undergraduate curricula regarding an adult-friendly path to initial licensure. Once this exploration demonstrates an MAT program to be promising, the outcome will be the design of a unique online master’s program for working STEM professionals.

The design will include marketing, hiring, and advising plans for quickly implementing the program. The project will identify specific targets for enrollment, licensing, and first-year success rates. The format will alleviate common barriers to career changing such as a long teacher training program, the need to attend classes on campus during work hours, emergency or temporary licenses, and the lack of relevant or convenient field experiences.

The envisioned online program will include best practices such as early practicum experiences, a standard licensing path, adult learning theory, induction mentorships, and a multi-faceted assessment system. The broader impact of this project rests on the assumption that it is never too late to go into teaching and that high-need and rural schools deserve and can have high quality STEM teachers.

This, in turn, can lead to more STEM interest among students in those schools. This exploration phase will be evaluated on the amount of concrete data and direction provided for planning the envisioned program. This Capacity Building project is supported by 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 effectiveness and retention 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.