Kennesaw State University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, in partnership with five school districts (Cobb County School District, Gwinnett County Schools, Atlantic Public Schools, DeKalb County Schools, and Paulding County School District), and two nonprofit organizations (the American Chemical Society and MetroRESA), are collaborating to address the recruitment, preparation and retention of teachers and master teachers in the critical shortage areas of secondary physics and chemistry. The partnership's aggressive recruitment strategy includes marketing through professional engineering societies, the Georgia Tech alumni community, and the chemistry and chemical engineering network associated with the American Chemical Society. The project is recruiting one cohort of 16 Teaching Fellows from STEM professions into a one-year teacher preparation program, then supporting them during their induction and early career years with frequent and targeted mentoring and other professional development experiences. The project is also recruiting 16 current physics and chemistry teachers as Master Teaching Fellows, to prepare them for broader leadership roles at district, state, and national levels through a five-year intensive program that includes research with university STEM faculty, subject-specific pedagogical training, and participation in professional education organizations. This teacher preparation and leadership development programming is built on a foundation of educational research and theory and an existing Master of Arts in Teaching program at Kennesaw State, and is also taking advantage of a wealth of practical experience of project team members who have been K-12 teachers in diverse and challenging science classrooms. Evaluation of the project is taking place in two stages, early and later program, and is studying the impact of the recruiting strategies on the growth of the Master's program; how the Master Teaching Fellows serve as teacher leaders and how this program facilitates the Fellows' professional growth; the impact of the teacher preparation and induction support on the Teaching Fellows; and the impact of the program on the retention of all Fellows. Results from the project are being disseminated widely through web media as well as national and international professional meetings and publications.
