This planning grant project at Cal Poly Pomona aims to develop partnerships with regional school districts and non profit organizations to develop a competitive grant proposal for submission to the Teaching Fellowships and Master Teaching Fellowships track of the Noyce Scholarship Program. The dynamic state of external factors affecting its teacher preparation programs has led Cal Poly Pomona to seek to build new school partnerships that allow for implementation of long-term investment strategies in STEM teachers who are trained specifically for success at low performing schools, and can be responsive to particular changes affecting districts or the university. As part of the planning process, a committee composed of administrators and faculty from three colleges at Cal Poly Pomona (Science, Engineering, and Education and Integrative studies), and of representatives from new nonprofit and school partners, is articulating a program for assisting individuals with STEM degrees to earn credentials and enter the local teaching community. The program is being designed to include both Teaching Fellows and Master Teaching Fellows components, to integrate into existing professional development school models, and to incorporate the range of experiences and support mechanisms needed to foster high teacher retention rates in the partner schools. To reach high needs schools that have not been easily served by regional state universities, the planning committee is also exploring the feasibility of developing a hybrid technology-based program to train and support new teachers, master teachers, and teacher mentors. The planning period is expected to result in a full proposal that will expand significantly the types of students who earn credentials from Cal Poly Pomona in STEM fields, as well as the number of well prepared and knowledgeable STEM teachers in the region, with a subsequent impact on curricular design, student support and the overall intellectual climate for STEM learning in high need urban districts.
