The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) and its independent school district (ISD) and community college partners is providing scholarship support to fifty-four individuals preparing to become certified science or mathematics teachers. Partners include Dallas, Arlington, Fort Worth, and Hurst-Euless Bedford ISDs, and Tarrant County College (TCC). The project is recruiting both career changers who already hold STEM baccalaureate degrees, as well as undergraduate students in their junior and senior years of STEM degree programs. The project provides a program of campus courses, online mentoring, and classroom teaching experiences to certify the new science and mathematics teachers for the four school districts. Program objectives include: 1) recruitment of mathematics and science teacher candidates from baccalaureate programs, community colleges, and career changers from local industry, 2) providing a quality two-track teacher certification program for candidates, and 3) induction, monitoring, and mentoring of candidates through the program and their early years of teaching. This project focuses on the development of secondary life science, earth science, and middle-level (grades 4-8) science and mathematics teachers, which complements an earlier focus on teachers of mathematics and the physical sciences.
UT Arlington brings to this work a comprehensive STEM teacher candidate recruiting program already in place through support of the newly funded U-Teach replication grant. The project employs best practices of the UTA NCATE-accredited certification program. The project specifically targets minority students in baccalaureate programs, as well as career changer pools. In addition, in order to achieve its goals related to addressing the urgent need for exceptionally qualified teachers who can provide outstanding science and mathematics learning experiences for the largely disadvantaged, urban secondary school students, the partnership is:
--Expanding its existing website for the program to provide candidates with access to resources and help them become members of a community of learners, particularly during their induction period; --Forming and supporting cohort groups led by UTA Education and Science faculty and link candidates with Mentor Teachers to guide field experiences and induction, and provide continued teaching support; --Introducing undergraduate candidates to teaching by placing them in partner school districts with Mentor Teachers for extensive field experiences from the beginning and throughout their programs; --Engaging candidates in standards-based inquiry teaching, problem-based teaching experiences, action research, curriculum development, and reflective practice, and in the sharing of findings, curricula, and reflections via website postings, online interactions, and professional-style presentations; --Providing two years of scholarships for baccalaureate students and a one-year stipend for career change candidates to complete their teacher certification program; --Implementing an evaluation plan that assesses the project's effectiveness in recruiting, preparing, and retaining teacher candidates, and that facilitates tracking of scholarship/stipend recipients as they fulfill their teaching obligation in the urban school districts; and --Disseminating findings and best practices of this project through research, and scholarly publications and presentations at professional conferences.
