The NSF Noyce Scholarship Program at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is graduating and certifying 36 secondary science teachers serving in high-need rural and urban communities in the southwestern Illinois region. The project is a partnership of the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Education, SIUE STEM Center, master teachers, community-based organizations, and the cooperating school districts. The objectives of the project are to: 1) recruit highly qualified STEM students that demonstrate an aptitude for teaching, 2) provide students with an enhanced experience in STEM education and research, 3) supply high-need middle and high schools with exemplary science educators, 4) increase outreach in the communities of southwestern Illinois, and 5) disseminate project findings for use in other STEM education settings. The project is implementing strategies for recruiting and nurturing cohorts of STEM teacher candidates during their college years and into their early teaching careers in high-need schools. Key components of the project are: 1) a self-efficacy framework that imparts confidence and skills to developing teachers, 2) a two-phased recruitment strategy that exposes underclassmen to the rewards and challenges of education and offers scholarships and research opportunities to upperclassmen, and 3) the development and support of a STEM teacher network in southwestern Illinois high-need school districts. Ten internships are awarded each year to freshmen and sophomores with an intended or declared major in STEM disciplines who show promise to be strong teachers. Interns teach in a variety of educational outreach programs at SIUE or with community partners for 200 hours during the summer. They receive training in science pedagogy for informal learning, meet regularly with project staff to reflect on their experiences, and give a culminating presentation at the end of the summer. Competitive Noyce Scholarships are awarded to juniors and seniors with a STEM major who are committed to pursuing STEM education careers. Noyce Scholars conduct outreach with disadvantaged middle and high school students, observe master teachers in high-needs schools, and take on the challenges of formal research in their content area or STEM education. They are participating in professional organizations and monthly meetings as they build a professional learning community. The activities are sequenced in order to build scholars' self-efficacy for teaching in a high-need school. After graduation, new teacher support includes a summer face-to-face workshop, online mentoring and support, and professional development events to maintain a collaborative network of peers and supportive master teachers in southwestern Illinois. The new teachers have access to and support from the SIUE STEM Center, which provides numerous services to educators including a lending library and professional development opportunities.
The SIUE Noyce Scholarship program is graduating candidates with a high self-efficacy for science teaching and strong STEM content background, connecting new teachers with other STEM educators in order to strengthen the network of STEM teachers in the region. The evaluation is examining the project's ability to effectively attract, train, place, and retain STEM students in teaching careers in high-need schools. Three novel elements of the project design are a self-efficacy framework, a focus on recruitment of pre-health professional students, and regional capacity building. The results of the evaluation are presented at national conferences to inform other Noyce programs and teacher preparation programs about the effectiveness of the model.
The project addresses a need for high quality teachers in underperforming urban and rural districts in southwestern Illinois. The scholars are teaching in schools in depressed small cities on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, which have a large minority population, as well as in rural districts with high poverty rates and low high school graduation rates. Through outreach activities built into the project design, the Noyce interns and scholars reach an additional 2,500 middle and high school students, providing minds-on STEM activities designed to generate interest and enthusiasm in STEM and STEM careers.
