Rio Salado College and Northcentral University, in partnership with high-needs school districts in rural Arizona and non-profit organizations that support STEM education (including the Arizona Business and Education Coalition, and the Arizona Rural Schools Association), are planning the development of the Science and Math in Arizona Rural Teaching (SMART) Fellows program, an articulated teacher preparation and master's degree program for STEM professionals transitioning to teaching careers in mathematics and science in rural schools. Rio Salado College's successful, state-approved Post-Baccalaureate Teacher Preparation Program is providing the foundation of the teacher preparation program component of the articulated SMART Fellows program, and Northcentral University's successful Master's in Education is contributing the foundation of the master's degree component of the program. An existing articulation agreement is facilitating the development and regulatory approval of the program. During this planning phase, the partnership is 1) identifying partner school districts and additional partner non-profit organizations that can provide substantial and meaningful support for the recruitment, training, and/or support activities in the program; 2) identifying best practices and successful approaches previous NSF Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program grantees have utilized for recruiting, training, and supporting STEM professionals transitioning to teaching careers; 3) completing the final stages of development of an evidence-based articulated teacher preparation and master's degree program for training and supporting SMART Fellows; 4) identifying potential sources of matching funds and obtaining commitments for these funds; and 5) developing a comprehensive grant proposal for the NSF Teaching Fellowship track of the 2011 Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program. The planning group is in addition developing a program of professional support to assist SMART Fellows throughout the four-year teaching commitment, and this program incorporates contributions from Intel® Teach and three NSF-funded non-profit centers (the Maricopa County Community College Center for Workforce Development, the Maricopa Advanced Technology Education Center, and the National Center for Teacher Education) that support STEM education through resource development and professional development. The planning award is facilitating these activities through support for a full-time Teaching Fellowship Planning Manager and multiple planning sessions involving representatives from all partner organizations. Specifically focused on training STEM teachers for rural schools, the SMART Fellows program would be the first combined teacher preparation and master's program in Arizona offered through a partnership between a community college and four-year university.
This Phase I Noyce Teaching Fellowship Planning Grant formulated a proposal requesting funds to prepare and mentor 36 STEM professionals to serve as new middle school and high school math and science teachers in rural high need schools. The Rio Salado College (RSC) Science and Math in Arizona Rural Teaching (SMART) Fellows Program is a collaborative program that includes RSC’s hybrid online/onsite teacher preparation program, Grand Canyon University’s (GCU’s) Master of Education in Secondary Education program, and partnerships with 11 rural high need school districts in Arizona. The participating districts and project team will recruit 36 STEM professionals to complete the 15-month teacher preparation and master’s program. Each of the participating districts has committed to hiring at least two SMART Fellows to fill open math and/or science teaching positions. While completing the four-year teaching commitment, the SMART Fellows will receive financial, mentoring, and professional development support to ease their transition into the classroom, integrate them into the teaching community, and improve their chances for long-term retention and classroom success. Specific support during the four-year early career period includes assignment to a discipline-matched mentor in the hiring district with integrated and ongoing support for both the mentor and the Fellow, assignment to a professional Cadre Leader from RSC to provide additional mentoring and other professional support, early career orientation with a peer group of SMART Fellows, semi-monthly professional development, structured video and onsite observations with peer and professional feedback, and supervisor-initiated observation and mentoring at the school level. RSC’s Post-Baccalaureate Teacher Preparation program, which serves as the basis of the SMART Fellows program, has produced more than 1,200 teachers since 2002. Of these, 88% are currently working in the education field, and 70% are teachers in public schools. These results suggest that RSC’s program is much better than the average traditional program at preparing teachers who enter and are retained in the profession. Through an extensive planning process, the SMART program partners developed an agreement for an articulated teacher preparation and master’s program between RSC and GCU. GCU’s STEM and education faculty revised components of the Master of Education in Secondary Education program to allow Fellows to choose an emphasis in math or science. STEM faculty from RSC and GCU will participate both in teacher training and ongoing professional development for Fellows. In addition, Fellows will have access to resources of the program’s non-profit partners and receive training from these partners: the NSF-funded National Center for Teacher Education ATLAST program, the NSF-funded NETWORKS Resource Center, and Intel® Teach. The SMART Fellows program is designed to address the challenges of recruiting, preparing, and retaining Highly Qualified math and science teachers in rural school districts. The program will train 36 new math and science teachers recruited from STEM-related industries, healthcare providers, and the military who express a desire and commitment to serving in rural high need schools. Through the program, partner districts will receive training on specific recruitment and retention techniques to improve their access to and retention of all teachers. Many of the professional development activities provided to the districts will affect teaching and learning beyond the SMART Fellows at each site. The program’s focus on rural districts in Arizona has the additional benefit of targeting districts with diverse student and faculty populations, with some participating districts having large Hispanic populations and others having large Native American populations. The program will recruit from among these populations and will consider diversity in the selection process as allowable to ensure SMART Fellows are representative of the communities they serve. Beyond the initial cohorts of SMART Fellows, the proposed program establishes an articulated teacher preparation and master’s program that will be available to other students who want to enter teaching from another career or after receiving another degree. In addition, the program team will develop and refine the infrastructure for prolonged early career mentoring and professional development support, and districts will receive training that will have lasting effects beyond the award period. The lessons learned from evaluating the SMART Fellows program approach to training and supporting new teachers recruited from STEM professions and placed in rural high-need schools will provide important insight into the best approaches for other teacher preparation and early career support programs. The program team will disseminate its findings broadly through the national network of community colleges, the National Center for Teacher Education, and the network of NSF-funded teacher preparation programs.
