ºÚ°µ±¬ÁÏÍø

On March 1, 2021, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded ºÚ°µ±¬ÁÏÍø a $121,000 grant through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program titled The Chicago STEM Teaching Collaborative. This one-year capacity building project at ºÚ°µ±¬ÁÏÍø includes partnerships with Chicago Public Schools (CPS), City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) and the New Teacher Center (NTC).

Abstract

The Chicago STEM Teaching Collaborative: Developing a STEM Master Teaching Program aims to serve the national need for highly effective K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts. It intends to do so by developing a STEM Master Teaching Fellowship (MTF) model designed to produce master teachers who are technically, culturally, and pedagogically proficient. Chicago faces a crisis in teacher retention, particularly for STEM teachers in high-need schools. The average school in Chicago Public Schools turns over 50% of its teachers every five years. Each year almost a third of the 520 Chicago public schools have trouble filling one or more teaching positions. The high attrition rate combined with the general scarcity of STEM teachers is creating an acute shortage of teachers in high-need schools. This project intends to design an MTF model that serves diverse, high-need communities and addresses the causes of teacher attrition. The project will identify, recruit, and select exemplary teachers to the MTF program. This project will extend the current mentoring of new STEM teachers from one year to beyond the third year, the point at which teacher attrition increases sharply.

Capacity Building Project

This Capacity Building project at ºÚ°µ±¬ÁÏÍø includes partnerships with Chicago Public Schools, City Colleges of Chicago, and the New Teacher Center. 

Goals of the project are to:

• build the capacity of key stakeholders to share expertise and resources and to build a strong community of practice