Building Alabama STEM Teachers with MS/MEd Credentials Program

The proposed Alabama State University (ASU) project aims to serve the national need for highly effective secondary school teachers in STEM disciplines. There is a shortage of STEM teachers nationwide, including the Black Belt of Alabama. The Building Alabama STEM Educators (BASE) with MS/MEd Credentials Program aims to produce more highly qualified STEM teachers who are competent in their content knowledge and pedagogy and possess a strong commitment and disposition to teaching biology, forensic science, and mathematics.

The program seeks to meet the need for K-12 STEM master-level teachers in Alabama. ASU is an HBCU (Historically Black College and University) located in the Black Belt of Alabama. The multifaceted BASE-MS/MEd program will support the goals of NSF, HBCUs in general, the state of Alabama, and the Montgomery Public Schools (MPS) to increase the number and diversity of Alabama STEM teachers.

The BASE-MS/MEd Program aims to develop and implement a teacher-training program that will recruit STEM undergraduate education students, track their matriculation, and assist them through areas that present challenges to their progress. With a formal recruitment pipeline, ASU's College of Education (COE) and College of Science, Engineering, and Technology plan to increase the number of STEM education teachers in the MPS district.

This holistic teacher preparation program will integrate best practices into the classroom, including reformed problem-based projects, mentoring, field placements, and group one-on-one best practices. The program will (1) serve a population of students from underrepresented groups with vigorous STEM experiences, (2) provide pedagogical confidence and skill development opportunities, (3) develop an infrastructure that will support teachers in high-need areas, (4) increase the numbers of STEM teacher candidates and graduates of ASU's COE, (5) serve as a model for other universities and colleges collaborating with teacher education programs, and (6) disseminate the project findings through research, scholarly publications, and presentations.

Each year, the project will recruit 8 new scholars from three STEM master's degree programs offered by ASU: biology, forensic science, and mathematics, and support them for 2-years to attain the MEd credentials. The collaboration between ASU and MPS district will be an effective team to produce more highly qualified STEM education teachers and increase the number of teachers from underrepresented groups.

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.