Building on two long-standing urban teacher preparation programs, Teach Next Year and the Urban Teacher Educator Corp., the University of Massachusetts Boston's Noyce Scholars Program is recruiting and preparing talented science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) undergraduates and professionals, particularly those from underrepresented groups, for urban teaching careers. The Noyce Scholars Program is a partnership made up of faculty from the College of Science and Mathematics, the Graduate College of Education and the Boston Public Schools. The partnership aims to increase the number of K-12 certified mathematics and science teachers by providing scholarships, teacher preparation courses, workshops, internships in urban schools and one-on-one professional coaching. A total of 39 Noyce Scholars are supported and preparing to become STEM teachers in urban schools. The programmatic cohesiveness, resource access and quality results of the Noyce Scholars Program are overseen by an Advisory Committee composed of representatives from the partnership schools and the university. This model, with its high retention and placement rate, is transferable and broadly informs other colleges and universities in preparing STEM professionals for teaching, in recruiting minority STEM professionals to the teaching field, and in forming viable partnerships with urban districts. The model and its results are being disseminated to allow other universities specializing in teacher preparation in high-needs urban districts to develop a similar program to recognize and develop local young people who have the potential and interest to become mathematics and science teachers.
