Improvement in student academic achievement in several school districts nationwide has been attributed to digital conversion of teaching methods and learning behaviors in those same districts. Despite this success, conversion to digital teaching and learning has not been universally adopted for a variety of reasons. This NSF-funded Noyce Master Teaching Fellowship (MTF)  focuses on preparing a cadre of at least 20 math and science teachers to:

• Leverage technology for enhanced student engagement and learning in K-12 area schools
• Increase understanding of how technology can be used to create new and more effective STEM teaching modalities to improve math and science instruction
• Lead their districts in digital conversion efforts
• Promote digital conversion while offering STEM learning opportunities promoted by the Common Core Program and the New Generation of Science Standards

This program builds on two prior MTF projects awarded to the University of Rochester, which involved total of 39 fellows. However, this new program differs in that there is additional focus on digital conversion and on developing a regional model best serving small school districts outside of major metropolitan areas. Given the emphasis on leveraging digital technologies for STEM learning, fellows will be involved in extensive and innovative learning experiences via synchronous and asynchronous online experiences.

The MTF program supports the National Science Foundation (NSF) Strategic Plan of 2014-2018 and the Noyce central doctrine by integrating education and research to create a diverse STEM workforce. Development of a strong STEM workforce will be enhanced through this project by:

• MTF fellows assuming leadership positions in district-wide digital conversion efforts
• The creation of a secondary STEM workforce pathway through K-12 student engagement and competency with digital learning
• Utilization of technologic equipment previously purchased by many districts using financial incentives provided by New York State (SMART Schools Bond Act-2015)

This MTF program will capitalize on the following competitive advantages:

• Ongoing collaboration between the University of Rochester and the high-needs small suburban district, East Irondequoit Central School District, resulting in successful digital conversion over the past 4 years (recently recognized by the National School Board Association (NSBA) as a nation-wide model)
• New York State’s recent implementation of new math and science standards, consistent with Common Core and New Generation Science Standards at the national level
• Infrastructure provided by the Western New York Digital Conversion Consortium recently launched by the Warner School and East Irondequoit School District
• The newly created Advanced Certificate in Digitally-Rich Teaching in K-12 Schools, approved and registered by the New York State Education Department
• Warner School’s experience in designing and offering a variety of online courses
• Preliminary results from a concurrent NSF funded grant designed to leverage synchronous online learning for professional development of math teachers in rural schools
• Previous collaboration of the Warner School, the University of Rochester Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Engineering and the Rochester Museum and Science Center involving two prior MTF projects

This MTF project is the result of the collaboration between:

• The University of Rochester’s Warner School of Education – and more specifically two of its centers, the Center for Professional Development and Education Reform and the Center for Learning in the Digital Age
• The University of Rochester’s College of Arts, Sciences and Engineering
• The Rochester Museum and Science Center
• The following Western New York school districts (all members of the K-12 Digital Consortium):
  • Auburn Central School District.
  • Dansville Central School District
  • East Irondequoit Central School District,
  • Geneva Central School District
  • Marcus Whitman Central School District
  • Newark Central School District
  • Penn Yan Central School District

Each partners has committed to the following responsibilities and expectations:

UR Warner School:

• Design and implement the training program, using input and support from all partners
• Coordinate fellow recruitment and selection process
• Monitor execution and completion of the program and service requirement
• Execute the external evaluation for NSF reporting
• Manage distribution of stipends and collection of remitted funds if necessary
• Offer a 50% tuition waiver for all coursework taken by Fellows
• Contribute additional in-kind resources to satisfy most of the matching funds requirement

UR College of Arts, Sciences and Engineering:

• Identify a faculty member who will act as a Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) and liaison for the program and who can engage other STEM faculty to participate in Noyce fellow experiences (Dr. John Kessler, Department of Earth and Environmental Science)
• Have STEM faculty co-PI participate in the fellow selection process
• Provide expert consulting on STEM content
• Offer guest lectures, lab experiences and support to Noyce fellows
• Provide on-going feedback and suggestions for program improvement
• Contribute information for program evaluation and reporting of results
• Contribute a portion of the STEM faculty co-PI’s time in-kind

District Partners:

• Assume a leadership role in recruiting and selecting fellows from their district
• Ensure selected fellows are available to conduct required training activities
• Provide opportunities for fellows to effect improvement of STEM teaching practices and advance digital conversion efforts
• Contribute information for program evaluation and reporting of results
• Contribute in-kind resources such as administrator time, space, etc.

Fellows:

• Participate in all 5-year training program activities (tuition-free)
• Provide services such as mentoring and professional development in support of district efforts to improve STEM teaching practices
• Support district efforts towards digital conversion
• Comply with the 5-year service requirement in high-needs schools by staying in the same district for the full 5 years
• If the above 5-year requirement is not fulfilled in the same district, the fellow must provide documentation of completion of the service requirement in another high-needs district or remit a portion of the $10,000 annual stipend

This MTF training program begins by focusing on digitally rich math and science practice for the first 2 years. During subsequent years fellows engage in more complex roles as “master teachers” (coaches, mentors, providers of professional development and agents of change). The program is comprised of 3 complementary and interrelated components:

• Customized 3-credit Warner graduate courses tailored to the specific goals of the MTF program and offered hybrid online
• Mentored field experiences – which may include the design and implementation of informal programs (e.g., summer programs for Museum and Science Center students), creation of professional development opportunities for STEM teachers and participation in digital conversion efforts in their district in collaboration with an assigned mentor from the program leadership team
• Leadership seminars comprised of the equivalent of half-day monthly meetings for fellows and mentors facilitated by the PI and members of the project leadership team aimed at developing fellow leadership roles as digitally rich STEM master teachers

Years 1 and 2: Focus on digitally rich STEM teaching

For the first 18 months, fellows focus on teaching practice, creating math and science experiences for their students consistent with state and national standards and informed by Understanding by Design (UbD) and Universal Design as instructional design approaches. Fellows complete a sequence of 3 semester-long courses, meeting requirements necessary to earn the Advanced Certificate in Digitally-Rich Teaching in K-12 Schools. All courses are offered in a hybrid-online format, including a combination of face-to-face, synchronous online sessions and asynchronous online activities.  Each participant will be supported in putting what they are learning into practice in their classrooms and other settings by an assigned mentor, building on lessons learned about mentoring and supporting teachers online from the NSF-funded SYNCON project.

Year 3: Focus on STEM coaching

In the third year, fellows begin coaching and mentoring student teachers and colleagues. Topics covered in course offerings include communication and counseling skills, content-based coaching and distance coaching. Concurrently, fellows will engage in mentored practices, in person and remotely, such as review of innovative instructional materials with colleagues, collaborative STEM lesson planning and student teacher mentoring.

Year 4: Focus on STEM professional development

During this year, fellows begin to provide professional development to teachers from local schools and University of Rochester pre-service teachers. Coursework required includes offerings in design and facilitation of STEM professional development, focusing on digitally rich math and science teaching online and in person. Mentored experiences are associated with course offerings. To prepare for program requirements in year five, fellows also complete a course in Leadership and Organizational Dynamics.

Year 5: Focus on STEM reform and digital conversion

In the final year, fellows focus explicitly on successfully effecting systemic reform in assigned districts with emphasis on digital conversion and its implications for the teaching of math and science. The goal is to enable Fellows to transition to the role of independent agents of change in their district, engaging with influential educators and participating in activities in the pursuit of digital conversion.

MTF Program at a Glance

Advanced Credentials Option:

Fellows may wish to pursue additional New York State certification as a School Building Leader and/or School District Leader to ensure opportunities for advanced positions in school administration (department chair or curriculum coordinator) and become more impactful agents of change. Certification requirements include completion of 6 additional courses and an administrative internship. All requirements may be satisfied during the regular five-year program. Grant funds are available to cover 50% of costs for eight scholarships with in-kind contributions for the remainder provided by the Warner School as a tuition waiver.

The focus of the first two years of this MTF program has been on preparing Fellows to use technology in ways that truly transform their STEM classrooms.  In what follows, we have operationally defined digitally-rich teaching and learning (DRTL) as creating student-centered learning activities that take full advantage of the learning opportunities offered by a combination of technologies leveraging digital learning, including most notably the use of personal computing devices (such as tablets and laptops), a learning management system (LMS), specialized software and apps, and a variety of digital resources. 

To prepare Fellows as digitally-rich teachers, we designed a sequence of three semester-long graduate level courses, along with a Practicum experience supported by mentors:

This sequence met all the requirements for the NYS-approved Advanced Certificate in Digitally-Rich Teaching in K-12 Schools, while also providing an additional focus on STEM.

For a quick overview of this coursework and its impact on our Fellows, watch the 3-minute video.

What follows is a more detailed description of each course, along with a link to its syllabus.

It is important to note the key role played, across all three courses, by engaging Fellows in “digitally-rich experiences-as-learners.”   These were authentic STEM learning activities, which might involve both face-to-face and online components, purposefully designed to enable Fellows to experience first-hand a specific pedagogical approach, teaching strategy, or digital resources.  Each experience was accompanied by an explicit reflection to better appreciate how different learners in the classes reacted to the experience, making connections with relevant theories and research, and drawing implications for their own teaching.

EDE546: Teaching & Learning STEM (EDE546 Syllabus):
To provide a common vision for K-12 STEM education, the first course purposefully started with a focus on learning and teaching STEM – with technology only playing a peripheral role.  Key goals for this course were to develop (a) a sharpened understanding of how people learn (especially in the context of STEM disciplines) and how this understanding informs classroom practices and pedagogies, and (b) confidence in their capacity to be an instructional leader in their local context, based on their deep knowledge of how people learn and how to translate/apply that knowledge into their classroom practice.  Course modules included How People Learn (with a dual focus on both the nature of math and science, and access and equity), Theories of Learning (including motivation and identity theories as well as theories explaining the learning process), and Teaching for Understanding (with a focus on inquiry-oriented teaching, modelling, fostering discourse in the classroom, and the key role of pedagogical content knowledge and the TPACK model more generally).  While not an explicit focus of this first course, fellows also gained exposure to how digital tools may enrich STEM students’ learning experiences, mostly through their own “experiences-as-learners” in the course.  

EDE484A: Digitally-Rich Teaching in K-12 Schools (EDE484A Syllabus):

This course’s main goals were to empower participants to appreciate the potential of digital technologies to support learning and teaching in general, and to use that potential to design and implement effective “digitally-rich” learning experiences for their K-12 students.  The course focused in particular on how digital tools and other resources can be used to enhance teaching practices and students’ learning experiences in the following four areas: (a) collaborative learning; (b) assessment; (c) content, and (d) differentiation.  The course also began to explore the implications for K-12 schools of a coordinated and sustained use of digitally-rich instruction in the context of district-wide efforts – whether described by terms such as digital conversion, personalized learning, digital initiative, 1:1, or other.  Students also engaged in carefully-designed supported “experiences as teachers,” where they can begin to put into practice what they are learning, while benefitting from feedback from their classmates as well as the course instructors and structured reflections on the significance and implications of these experiences for their future teaching.

EDE468: Integrating Technology in STEM Teaching (EDE468 Syllabus):

The goal of the third course is to push Fellows’ thinking about and understanding of technology and the K-12 curriculum.  As such, the course purposefully straddles the tension between what is current in STEM education and what is possible.  Envisioning the skills and knowledge teacher leaders should have, based on the emerging consensus of the research and business communities, Fellows are asked to think critically and productively about providing students meaningful learning opportunities in STEM.  Overarching questions guiding this course include:

• What are we preparing students for?
• How does the use of technology influence STEM practices?
• How do STEM practices influence our use of technology?
• What are barriers that hinder the incorporation of digitally rich STEM learning opportunities for students?

Course modules focus on embodied play, using data within STEM, computations thinking, and machine learning.

Recruitment:

The first semester of the project was devoted to the recruitment and selection of fellows. The opportunity to apply for a fellowship was offered to all math and science teachers in partner districts. In addition, the Warner School proactively requested nominations of candidates from school principals, other administrators in each partner district as well as regional STEM educators. In order to attract a committed and diverse pool of applicants, our recruiting process included the following components:

• Face-to-face and online Information Sessions
• A required, free digitally-rich STEM teaching workshop

Selection:

District math and science teachers interested in applying to the fellowship program were required to submit the following documentation for review:

• Cover letter stating the reasons for the applicant’s interest in and commitment to the program
• Curriculum Vitae or Resume
• Copies of transcripts and test scores including the New York State Content Specialization Test results
• Artifacts illustrating the applicant’s teaching style with student outcomes
• List of references and letters of recommendation
• Video of applicant teaching a full class period

Applications and supporting documents were first reviewed by a sub-set the leadership team, and included an evaluation of the submitted classroom teaching video using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) and at least one phone with an administrator.  The sub-group then generate a short list of qualified candidates based on the following considerations:

• A completed master’s degree
• Strength of prior transcripts and test scores
• Evidence of innovative teaching practices, including use of technology, and positive impact on STEM learning
• Past involvement and performance in STEM and technology professional development and reform efforts
• Evidence of high-quality STEM teaching and leadership potential
• Commitment to participate in all program activities and maintain their district employment

The short list was then reviewed by all the project co-PIs to decide on who to invite to join the project as Fellow.  In this final review, considerations were also given to achieve a balance with respect to Fellows’ grades and specializations as well as representation of partner districts.

Formerly named the Western New York Digital Conversion Consortium, this consortium was formed in 2016 as several K-12 schools in the region were beginning to leverage the power of digital technologies for instruction, and recognized the value of learning from each other.  Consortium members today include over 25 school districts and BOCES in Western New York, as well as the University of Rochester’s Center for Learning in the Digital Age.

With the goal of supporting its members in leveraging digital technologies to enhance student learning and better prepare tomorrow’s workforce, the Consortium aims to:

• Promote the sharing of information and lessons learned across districts
• Provide information about professional learning opportunities and other support services
• Facilitate access to valuable resources
• Create networking opportunities to promote collaborations
• Act as a catalyst to attract funding to support regional efforts
• Support districts interested in getting started

See the 3-minute Video created for the 2019 STEM for All Video for more information about the role played by this K12-university partnership in this project.

For more information, visit the k12digitalorg, the K-12 Digital Consortium website.