This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The Syracuse University Noyce Scholars Program for Science and Mathematics Teachers (SUNoyce) is a multi-faceted collaborative project involving the Syracuse University School of Education, College of Arts & Sciences, the Graduate School and partners including the Upstate Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP), the Syracuse City School District, the Upstate High-Needs Rural Schools Consortium, Onondaga Community College, Monroe Community College and a network of informal STEM education centers from across central New York hosting summer internships for undergraduates with the goal of increasing the number of highly-qualified science and mathematics teachers teaching in high-need school districts, including several rural districts. The SU-Noyce project is preparing 36 additional highly-qualified mathematics and science (Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Earth Science) teachers over a five-year period, resulting in a 41% increase over the current capacity. The project supports two-year scholarships for undergraduate junior and senior STEM majors in a four-year teacher education program, three-year scholarships for STEM majors enrolled in a five-year BA/MS degree program leading to teacher certification, and one-year stipends for STEM professionals and recent STEM graduates pursuing teacher certification through a master's degree in mathematics or science education.
SU-Noyce Scholars participate in a robust and sustained mentoring and professional development program during their first three years of teaching in a high-needs school district to reduce the rate of attrition during the challenging induction period and encourage these scholars to remain in high-needs schools beyond the period of their service obligation. Research associated with the project is providing evidence of (a) the effectiveness of the use of the Central Tasks of Learning to Teach (Feiman-Nemser, 2001) framework with candidates at all stages of the professional learning continuum of preparing, inducting and supporting teachers, and (b) the supports that are most helpful to teachers as they transition from novices to competent professionals.
