Texas A&M University-Texarkana, in partnership with Texarkana College and Northeast Texas Community College, is providing scholarships and support to encourage highly talented mathematics and science majors and professionals to become certified K-12 teachers in nine high-need rural school districts in northeast Texas and southwest Arkansas. The project is producing thirty-two new math or science teachers in four years in nine partner high-need rural school districts. Upon graduation and certification, novice teachers receive support through an effective induction program that assists them in the transition from resident teacher to professional educator and ensures their retention in the teaching profession well beyond their teaching service obligation. Goals of the project are to increase the quantity of K-12 teachers who have high quality mathematics or science content knowledge in partnership high-need rural school districts, to increase the number of underrepresented minority math and science teachers in partnership school districts, to provide minority students with more role models from whom they can obtain inspiration for their own careers in math, science, or other fields, and to study the recruitment, preparation, and retention of highly qualified math or science teachers in high-need rural school districts. The Robert Noyce Scholarship Program at A&M Texarkana includes the following objectives: (1) extensive recruitment from a large and diverse group of well qualified mathematics or science students who are committed to teaching in high-need rural school districts, (2) exemplary preparation of the students to become superior math and science teachers, (3) consistent and innovative support of the novice teachers to transition and retain them in the profession, and (4) utilization of program evaluation data to study and advance knowledge in the areas of teacher recruitment, development, and retention in high-need rural school districts.
