King's College Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program

The project aims to address the national need evident in the STEM teaching shortage by funding the preparation, retention, and mentorship of high-quality graduates to teach in K-12 classroom environments. Nationally, one reason educator retention will remain low is because teachers leave the field when they feel ineffective. Additionally, STEM educators will continue to avoid service in schools with high numbers of student from minority populations without comprehensive training and support.

To help address these challenges and increase self-efficacy, this project will provide candidates with teacher preparation training specifically related to inclusive and culturally responsive practices, universal design for learning (UDL), collaboration, and STEM content expertise. The project will also provide candidates with leadership support and training to build a sustainable professional learning community (PLC) that includes representatives from the community college, the local educational agency, and the four-year college.

The general expected outcomes will include higher rates of teachers’ perceptions of efficacy, teacher retention, and collaboration. The project benefits society by reducing the costs associated with teacher attrition, increasing the number of high-quality STEM teachers, and expanding access.

This project at King’s College includes partnerships with a high-need school district, Hazleton Area School District, and a community college, Luzerne County Community College. The project goals will include: (1) providing comprehensive preparation and support with grant-funding for 20 undergraduate STEM teacher scholars over a 5-year period in the Northeastern Pennsylvania area; (2) creating an environment of mentorship among all STEM teacher candidates with comprehensive PLCs; and (3) increasing the retention of STEM teachers employed in classrooms with improved teacher self-efficacy.

The research will investigate if the specified training impacts teachers’ reported efficacy. Theoretically, teacher self-efficacy parallels retention rates. The team will document the project’s impact on teacher self-efficacy using a repeated-measures design.

Comprehensively, the project’s intellectual merit and broader impact will reside in informing STEM teacher preparation for work in high-need schools. To monitor and evaluate, the team will present results from the project at regional and national conferences and will submit manuscripts for peer-reviewed publications. This Track 1: Scholarship 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 K12 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.