The project aims to serve the national need of preparing highly qualified mathematics and science teachers to serve in high-need elementary and secondary schools. Future U.S. competitiveness depends on how well prepared the nation’s students are for 21st century careers in STEM. The CUNY-Lehman College teacher preparation program intends ensure that more students are prepared for these future STEM careers. To do so, it will recruit three cohorts of individuals who have obtained baccalaureate degrees in a STEM discipline and support them in earning a master’s degree in education with teacher certification. The support will include a two-semester, mentored experience in public schools. The project is expected to strengthen the pipeline into mathematics and science teaching in areas with high needs and to improve the quality of STEM teaching in public elementary, middle, and high schools in New York.
This project at the City University of New York-Lehman includes partnerships with high-need, New York school districts in the Bronx and in Mount Vernon. During each of the first three years of the project, it intends to recruit annual cohorts of nine individuals who have a STEM degree and provide them with scholarships and other support to complete a master’s degree. As a result, 27 new certified STEM teachers should be teaching in high need schools by the end of the award. The project will provide the Noyce Scholars with coursework that builds their content knowledge and pedagogical skills in working with elementary and secondary school students in science and mathematics classrooms. Additional project goals include development of the Noyce Scholars’ ability to connect teaching and learning to the experiences of their linguistically and culturally diverse students. These skills are expected to be honed during a two-semester sequence of immersive experiences at New World High School in the Bronx and at a K-8 school in Mount Vernon, where the Noyce Scholars will be mentored by experienced in-service STEM classroom teachers. The project also aims to build the capacity of the host schools to provide high-quality, clinical experiences for pre-service teachers, both online and onsite, by becoming “best practice†demonstration sites. The project also intends to reform and implement a joint elementary-secondary teacher preparation program to meet local school needs. Finally, the project aims to generate and disseminate new knowledge about the relationships between teacher effectiveness and their preparation in mathematics and science education. 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 persistence, retention, and effectiveness 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.
