Promoting Inclusiveness and Diversity in STEM Education

The project aims to serve the national need to prepare more high-quality STEM teachers who are trained to succeed in settings with diverse classrooms. More specifically, this project addresses the ever-growing number of unfilled science and mathematics teaching positions for middle and secondary schools in the state of Illinois and the surrounding region.

Additionally, while the student population is often more diverse than that of STEM teachers, STEM teachers have limited preparation in considering such unique cultural backgrounds in their teaching approaches. In response, the project team will recruit, retain, graduate, and support an additional 24 racially, linguistically, and culturally diverse STEM teachers.

THe project will implement and evaluate the effectiveness of project activities designed to increase the capacity for early career teachers to use culturally responsive pedagogies (CRP) and content area literacies in STEM classrooms.

This project at Elmhurst University includes partnerships with Fenton High School District 100 and Leyden High School District 212, as well as College of DuPage and Harper Community College. The project goals are to: (1) recruit, retain, and graduate 24 undergraduate students pursuing STEM degrees with teacher licensure in mathematics, biology, chemistry, or physics over the five years of the project; (2) place 100% of Noyce graduates in high-need school districts and support them to complete their Noyce teaching obligation; (3) improve STEM teacher candidates’ preparedness for enabling student success in diverse classrooms by embedding CRP pedagogies and content area literacies throughout the curriculum; and (4) increase knowledge about best practices for promoting CRP and content area literacies within teacher preparation programs.

The project aims to develop strategies for better integrating culturally-responsive pedagogy and content area literacies into K-12 classrooms, primarily through a series of professional development workshops and classroom observations provided as part of the induction supports. The project leadership team will disseminate the results of the project through presentations professional conferences, a workshop focused on the integration of CRP within teacher preparation programs, and a website that collects resources on these pedagogies for both K-12 and college educators.

The project evaluation will be conducted by The Rucks Group, using a mixed-methods approach with surveys, interviews/focus groups, institutional data, and classroom observations. This Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends project is supported through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (Noyce). The Noyce program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers and experienced, exemplary K-12 teachers to become STEM master teachers in high-need school districts.

It also supports research on the persistence, retention, and effectiveness of K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.