Effective Practices for STEM Teacher Persistence through Community-Building

By: Kristen V. Napolitano, Ed.D, Lecturer, Stony Brook University
Meghan Marrero, Ed.D., Professor, Mercy University
Amanda M. Gunning, Ph.D., Professor, Mercy University

Teachers explore the engineering design cycle to build windmills as part of a sustainable energy lesson. Photo credit: Mercy University Center for STEM Education

STEM fields are rapidly changing and expanding. Yet, the lack of accessibility to STEM education in high-need schools limits children and families in Black and Brown, and/or low-income communities as we plow ahead into unknown sociotechnical territory. This lack of accessibility gives even greater impetus to prepare STEM teachers to persist in high-need schools so they can help create consistent, good quality STEM experiences for all students. Teacher educators have been called to action to diversify the secondary STEM teacher workforce, prepare STEM teachers for computer science and engineering integration, and equip early-career STEM teachers with tools they need to stay in their high-need school placements, even beyond their program commitments, such as those that come with Noyce scholarships, teaching fellowships, or induction programs (Bell et al., 2019; Youngs et al., 2019).

Mercy University’s Center for STEM Education responded to this call through our NSF Noyce STEM Teacher Scholar program (DUE #1339951) that prepared 16 teachers (10 in secondary math and 6 in science), among 4 cohorts of approximately 4 Scholars each year, starting in 2015. The Scholars began as juniors, spending two academic years observing local high-need schools and participating in seminars with their cohorts, exploring issues such as institutional racism, culturally relevant teaching, and building relationships with learners. They applied for and began their master’s degree (M.S.) and state certification program. During the 36-credit M.S., the Scholars completed two semester-long student teaching placements in high-need partner schools, where they were mentored by cooperating teachers, university faculty, and university clinical supervisors. In their first two years of teaching, Mercy faculty and supervisors continued to visit the teachers in their classrooms to provide feedback and mentoring, and the cohorts met monthly as another form of ongoing support.

Nine years later, 15 of the 16 Scholars remain teaching in high-need schools. Of the 16, 12 were first-generation college students, and 8 identified as either Black, Latinx, Asian, and/or multiracial. Most took more than four years to complete their undergraduate degree. Several Scholars experienced housing and/or food instability during their undergraduate and/or graduate years. Despite some difficulties that slowed their progress, our students successfully became educators who continue to teach in high-need schools.

We asked ourselves why they persevered and remain. Through research and evaluation efforts, we examined these Scholars’ experiences and successes, following them even after their Noyce service requirement to remain in a high-need school was fulfilled, in order to better understand strategies that worked in preparing them to persist in these settings. We also maintained our relationships with these teachers through professional social gatherings, text chats, and various professional development opportunities. These interactions have allowed us to gather both anecdotal and structured data, including interviews and surveys. Through this work, we have uncovered three effective practices for retention:

• Employing a distributed mentorship model to leverage social capital and create a sustainable professional network,
• Building professional tools, such as assessment, reflection, and data-driven instructional practices, and
• Keeping the opportunities coming–ensuring on-going professional development opportunities and leadership for program completers.

We unpack each of these three strategies to demonstrate how our Scholars found a family through our network; used their program experiences to improve their own instruction through reflective practices and data analysis; and kept returning to us for more professional development, additional education, and mentorship opportunities, years after completing their program.

Creating and Learning from our STEM Teacher Preparation Program

Over the last 10+ years, our team of STEM education faculty and support staff have developed a STEM school network that builds relationships with our local teachers and administrators. The relationships and research gained from this network informed our Mercy Intensive STEM Teacher Initiative (MISTI) program and positioned us to prepare teachers specifically for our local high-need schools. We knew that teacher persistence in these schools was contingent on developing powerful social and institutional capital among our Scholars and providing them with on-going opportunities for professional growth, including computer science and engineering professional development, post-graduate coursework, conference attendance and presentations, and informal STEM teaching positions within our community outreach programs (Marrero et al., 2022; Napolitano et al., 2022). These small, but sustainable, strategies made big impacts on our teacher retention. Most importantly, we believe we have been able to build community through having some of our Scholar alumni serve as mentors and cooperating teachers for our newest Noyce Scholars. This experience helps our early-career Scholars develop strong, persistent STEM teacher identities in our local high-need schools (Marrero et al., 2022).

Leveraging Social Capital for Success and Fostering a Sustainable Professional Network       

The program for our Noyce Scholars was intentionally designed as a cohort model in which Scholars could learn and grow together. Each Scholar was an integral part of a peer group of four to six students. Starting as juniors, and into their first years as classroom teachers, these cohorts were guided by one another and by program faculty and staff who served as mentors. Initially, the group met monthly, connecting theory to practice—analyzing what they saw in classroom observations with respect to what they were learning in their classes.

The group also helped individuals to build social and cultural capital, helping each other get through academic hurdles as they studied to become state certified teachers. For instance, if a Scholar was struggling with a particular university class, others in the group provided insights on how to study or how to approach the professor for extra help. They helped each other navigate the state teacher exams, providing resources for practice tests or study strategies. The mentors and fellow Scholars were constant cheerleaders and supporters. Two Scholars speak about this support.

As new teachers, Scholars continued to rely on this network through monthly meetings and group texts. They helped each other through the very challenging first years of teaching, sharing resources and pedagogical strategies, or just being a good listener. Teaching can be an isolating profession, but our research found that having a trusted peer network helped our Scholars feel supported and allowed them to persist through the challenges as one Scholar explained.

Building Professional Tools: Assessment, Reflection, and Data-Driven Instructional Design

In the years following the Noyce scholarship program, Scholars described the ways the program provided them with professional tools, including specific knowledge and skills necessary to successfully navigate and communicate with colleagues and administrators. Scholars noted that elements of their Noyce scholarship program, such as coursework focused on navigating and leveraging feedback, self-assessment practices, and employing effective formative assessments to inform their instruction and teaching philosophy, helped them most in gaining and refining their teacher toolkits (Napolitano et al., 2022). As a result, the Scholars felt better prepared and more comfortable with these same practices when they appeared or became a necessity later in their careers.

The preservice component of the program embedded opportunities for peers, cooperating teachers, faculty, and supervisors to share their perspectives and ideas so that each Scholar gained familiarity with giving and receiving actionable feedback. Using a warm and cool feedback protocol (guided by sentence starters and timing for receiving and responding to feedback from peers), Scholars became proficient at analyzing their own and others’ teaching to consider strengths and areas for improvement. Communicating, acting, and reflecting on these prepared the Scholars for both their formal teaching evaluations and their self-assessment practices when they began their jobs. This lasted beyond their induction time and perhaps contributed to their persistence in the field. For many Scholars, this was useful not only for their personal teaching goals, but for their administrators’ expectations of them as early-career professionals. A Scholar describes the value of this preparation.

Additionally, program faculty coached the Scholars on how to create, interpret, and act on formative assessments to guide their pedagogical goals. Scholars worked with their network of peers, supervisors, and cooperating teachers to think critically and intentionally about their formative assessments which allowed them to improve and refine them in-the-moment and for future use. Like their experiences with feedback and reflection, Scholars’ experiences with dissecting specific formative assessments built their confidence to do the same when they entered the field. A Scholar highlighted the importance of data in an interview.

Keeping the Opportunities Coming: Professional Development and a Place to Return

We strive to foster a sense of family and community for all educators in our network, including those in our Noyce Scholarship program. One of our Scholars noted in an interview: “[The Noyce program] has supported me in ways family supports one another. I’m grateful to be part of a team of radical educators that focus on using hard data as the foundation of our learning.” This is how we want them to feel – like they have mentors to come back to, professional development opportunities to think about, and a place to share their work. Nurturing these relationships is particularly important in supporting our racially, ethnically, and/or socioeconomically diverse Scholars. They are the first group to which we offer new opportunities – whether it is a job to teach at our summer STEM camp or a new teacher Fellowship or to take some donated lab supplies.  The Scholars are routinely invited to our annual STEM Teacher Conference as attendees or presenters. Scholars have presented on creating school gardens, integrating technological tools such as Makey Makey™, using problem solving frameworks in mathematics, and incorporating ocean literacy into the science classroom.

Scholars who are several years out of the program are invited back as guest speakers for education classes, the university’s Education Club meetings, and for accreditation visits and dean’s council meetings. The Scholars know we keep them in mind for many opportunities, so they keep us in mind, too. They contact our team when there are job openings for teachers or a desire for student teachers. They let us know when they get engaged, have babies, or move. We have built not only a professional network for them to connect with one another and with teachers in our other programs but also a place to call home, a place to return to where they are always welcome. This network is important; it helps keep them in the classroom and grow as professionals.

Implications for Teacher Preparation for High-Need Schools

Teacher preparation and professional development programs interested in supporting STEM teacher retention in high-need schools are critical, especially for teachers in Black or Hispanic communities, or for those who are first-generation college graduates (Marrero et al., 2022; Sleeter & Milner, 2011; Villegas & Irvine, 2010). Teacher candidates in these programs benefit most when:

• they can leverage social capital, such as knowing who to turn to when they need something and utilize relationships with their program mentors, faculty, and peers to strengthen their identities as early-career teachers;
• they gain professional tools, such as ones for accountability for data-driven instruction; and
• they receive opportunities to continue their professional journeys by mentoring other Scholars, taking additional courses, or teaching for community programs.

Being the “family” teachers return to is important. The connections and opportunities preservice programs can continue to provide to new teachers support their success and persistence in high-need schools, which in turn supports students. This is an important priority for all teacher preparation institutions to consider and strive to provide to address the shortfall in our neediest students’ STEM education.

Acknowledgement

Thanks to 2024 ARISE blog series editor Stacy Olitsky for working with the authors.  See Stacy’s blog also focused on teacher retention in high-need schools, Professional Identity, Social Interaction, and Persistence in STEM Teaching within High-Need Schools.

Kristen Napolitano, Ed.D, Lecturer, Stony Brook University
kristen.napolitano@stonybrook.edu

Dr. Napolitano joined Stony Brook University’s Institute for STEM Education (I-STEM) as Lecturer in 2024. Prior to I-STEM, she was a Senior Researcher at the Center for STEM Education at Mercy University where she led professional development for preK-12 STEM educators, graduate courses in STEM education, and teacher leadership initiatives, including the Wipro Science Education Foundation’s Wipro Reimagined project.  Her research focuses on teacher certification and accountability, teacher identity, and STEM teacher leadership.

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Meghan Marrero, Ed.D., Professor, Mercy University
mmarrero3@mercy.edu

Dr. Meghan Marrero is a Professor of Science Education and Co-founder and Co-director of the Center for STEM Education at Mercy University. A former NYC high school science teacher, she is passionate about making STEM and marine education accessible to all learners. She teaches courses in oceanography, educational assessment, and STEM teacher leadership at Mercy. Meghan’s research interests include ocean literacy, STEM teacher leadership, and supporting STEM preservice and novice teacher development.

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Amanda M. Gunning, Ph.D., Professor, Mercy University
agunning@mercy.edu

Amanda M. Gunning co-founded the Mercy University Center for STEM Education, which she co-directs, providing outreach programs for K-12 students and teachers. A former high school physics teacher, she is now a professor of science education and teaches K-12 science and STEM methods and STEM content courses for teachers. Her research interests lie in K-12 science teacher education using a self-efficacy framework; teacher leadership; family learning of STEM; and STEM teacher professional development. She is the co-director of the Greater New York Wipro Science Education Fellowship in New York State.