The Northeast Noyce Regional Conferences are designed to advance the knowledge base of teaching mathematics and science in high-need schools. Organized by Drexel University, the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and SUNY Cortland, the conferences serve the Noyce Scholarship Program community from over 40 projects in the Northeastern states. The conferences enable faculty, preservice students and new science and mathematics teachers from Noyce projects to frame a new area of research that provides stronger insights about the learning and achievement of subgroups of students in high need schools who have been historically marginalized in STEM fields. Participants convene to share ideas, best practices and inspire one another to address the national needs of supporting high quality, innovative and transformative mathematics and science teaching and to advance urban and rural education. The conferences provide opportunities for Noyce scholars and teachers to collaborate, share experiences, expertise and skills with their peers and colleagues and continue to maintain connections after the conference. The conferences aim to help Noyce Scholars and teachers improve their teaching so as to make gains in closing the achievement gap as they learn about practices that address needs of students in high-need schools. The goal is to transform practices and policies to better support science and mathematics learning for students in high-need schools. Conference participants are contributing to the development of a web-based platform designed to address the challenges of STEM education and STEM teaching in high-need urban and rural schools.
