The Capacity Building project at Lindsey Wilson College, supported by the National Science Foundation's Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, aims to serve the national need for highly qualified biology and mathematics teachers in secondary schools. In particular, the project addresses the secondary STEM teacher shortage in rural Kentucky. This is accomplished by bringing together STEM and Education faculty to collaborate on improving STEM courses and aligning course content with state teacher certification standards. Additionally, the project collects evidence from college students about their interests in teaching careers and uses this information to improve recruitment of future secondary STEM teachers. Further, the project explores the feasibility of building a new Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program that could provide a graduate education pathway to secondary STEM teaching careers.

This Capacity Building project at Lindsey Wilson College includes partnerships with Somerset Community College and two high-need local school districts, Russell County Schools and Adair County Schools, that lays the groundwork for a future Noyce Track 1: Scholarships and Stipends proposal. The project goals are to: 1) improve coordination among STEM and Education faculty; 2) collect evidence and develop new strategies to increase enrollment of future secondary STEM teachers; and 3) determine feasibility of a new Master of Arts in STEM Teaching graduate program. To accomplish these goals, the campus established a new STEM Education Curriculum Committee to build key bridges between STEM and Education faculty. STEM faculty engages in aligning PRAXIS subject assessment information, Kentucky Academic Standards and National SPA standards for Mathematics and Biology, to guide authentic revision of 36 STEM content courses to produce highly qualified future secondary STEM teachers for the region. Additionally, the project is collecting evidence from students to inform and improve materials to recruit undergraduate STEM majors, local community college transfer students, and local high school students to secondary STEM teaching careers. The project conducts outreach specifically to reach Hispanic and Latino students, who are currently underrepresented in the teacher workforce compared to secondary student populations in the region. An experienced, external consultant has been contracted to analyze the feasibility of developing a Master of Arts in Teaching program that could enable entry to STEM teaching careers at the graduate level, in addition to efforts to attract future STEM teachers from undergraduate student populations. Project evaluation will be led by an Advisory Committee composed of stakeholders from the campus, the high- need local school districts, and the University Center of Southern Kentucky at Somerset Community College. In addition to building capacity to recruit new secondary STEM educators in the region, the project provides insights into how STEM and Education faculty can collaborate to revise undergraduate STEM curricula such that they align with state certification standards and better prepare highly effective secondary STEM teachers. This Capacity Building 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 retention and effectiveness of K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts.

This capacity building project titled - Building Capacity to Recruit and Prepare High-Quality Secondary STEM Educators in Kentucky is funded by the National Science Foundation (Grant #2150110). For more information about this project contact Dr. Jennifer Antoniotti-Neal at ( nealj@lindsey.edu ) or Dr. Mark McKinnon at ( mckinnonm@lindsey.edu ).