NSF Award
1439790
Teaching in a high-need school is challenging work and, without appropriate supports, new teachers are at risk of low job satisfaction, burn out and leaving teaching altogether. To address these needs, the Philadelphia Regional Noyce Partnership (PRNP) consisting of Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges, Drexel University, La Salle University, the University of Pennsylvania, Saint Joseph's University and Temple University, together with the Philadelphia Education Fund and its Philadelphia Teacher Residency Program will develop a new teacher support program that will provide flexible, individualized supportive services to new first and second year Noyce teachers so as to increase their persistence and professional growth as STEM professionals in the Philadelphia region. The Philadelphia Regional Noyce Partnership will develop a model of early career teacher support using regional resources that will retain and sustain new STEM teachers. These new Noyce teachers will have increased opportunities to participate in mentoring, professional development, communities of practice and social networks with regional STEM professionals in real and virtual environments. The new teacher support model will include the following components: (1) Individualized Support Plan (ISP); (2) Mentoring (Mentor Training Model Development, Mentor Training and Mentoring Support); (3) Professional Development; (4) Outreach and Networking; and (5) Website Based Resources and Communication.<br/><br/>The proposed activities will contribute to the subfield within STEM education focused on preparing,retaining, and supporting the development of high quality teachers in high needs settings. Specifically, through developing and testing an approach that supports both new teachers' emotional well-being and their instructional outlook and skills, the project will increase understanding of the challenges confronted by novice teachers in a large urban school district and ways that those challenges can be managed and met. By the end of the two-year project, there will be a refined regional model of new STEM teacher support that can be scaled to provide support for large numbers of new teachers. In addition to providing support for new STEM teachers working in high-needs schools in Philadelphia, to increase their capacities as teachers and the likelihood that they will stay in teaching, the project will prepare experienced STEM teachers to serve as mentors of new teachers, enhancing the self-sustaining capacity of the network of teachers in Philadelphia. The project will strengthen a growing partnership across seven teacher education institutions in Philadelphia, facilitating regional cooperation efforts devoted to teacher development and support. Finally, through collaborative efforts, the partnership will offer a rich menu of supports for all new STEM teachers in the region, exceeding the capacity of any single institution to support its graduates.
