STEM Futures: Nurturing Educators for Pennsylvania's High-Need Schools

The project aims to serve the national need of preparing high-quality teachers to meet the STEM teacher shortages of highly qualified individuals in more than one STEM subject prepared to teach in high-need schools. This problem is important in that many STEM teachers teaching in urban areas are not credentialed to do so in the content area they teach, resulting in underprepared students.

To solve the problem, Holy Family University (HFU) will implement a program in which students may graduate with competency in one or more STEM fields, a STEM degree, teacher licensure, and preparation to meet the needs of highly diverse, high-need classrooms. The general expected outcomes of the proposed project include 12 STEM teachers highly prepared to teach one or more STEM subject in a high-need school and to be retained as a highly effective teacher with diverse and high-need students through at least four years of teaching.

This project introduces a structured pathway for STEM teachers to gain mastery and licensure in one or more STEM fields and translate that by filling the national need for highly qualified STEM teachers prepared to excel in high-need classrooms.

This project at Holy Family University includes partnerships with high-need schools including Franklin Towne Charter High School, Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School, and Wissahickon Charter School. Project goals include the following: (1) Recruit 12 STEM majors/Noyce scholarship recipients to pursue education and STEM teaching careers with salary supplements. (2) Retain 100% of original Scholars through strategies that include faculty mentorship, professional development experiences, learning cohorts, and citizen-science lesson planning that meet Next Generation Science Standards crosscutting concepts. (3) Graduate 100% of Noyce Scholars within four years with a STEM major and content competency as indicated by passing the Praxis II exam (in one or two content areas). (4) Track and support the persistence of Noyce Scholar alumni during their high-need school teaching service by providing mentorship, induction-support activities for four years of their teaching, and salary supplements for first five years.

The theoretical basis of the project is based on providing crosscutting concepts for STEM teachers to gain competency in one or more STEM subjects while acknowledging the interconnectedness of STEM fields. The evaluation study will analyze the impact of the Noyce program on Scholars’ preparedness to teach in a high-need environment, and how the induction support activities fostered retention within the STEM teaching field.

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 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.