Jan Yow
University of South Carolina-Columbia, SC·Education Research
Rural schools often struggle to keep strong math and science teachers, in part because those teachers can feel isolated and lack local mentors. This project asks whether developing experienced rural teachers into STEM teacher leaders can help retain good teachers and improve STEM instruction in their districts.
- Fields
Education Research
- Topics
STEM teacher leadership
rural education
Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Sep 2032
What they work on
- Develop 16 STEM teacher leaders from five South Carolina school districts through a three-year Ed.D. STEM program and a two-year Action Research Implementation program.
- Study how rural STEM teacher leaders research and implement a problem of practice, a real challenge in their own schools, and how this work affects their districts.
- Evaluate whether research-based strategies that target teacher isolation, instruction quality, persistence and leadership improve the effectiveness and retention of rural STEM teachers.
More about the research
This Noyce Track 3 Master Teaching Fellowship project, called STEM-TLAR2C, will support 16 practicing teachers from five South Carolina districts: Bamberg, Calhoun, Lee, Lexington 1 and Richland 1. The South Carolina Coalition for Mathematics and Science is also a partner. The five-year program starts with a three-year Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) STEM degree. It is followed by a two-year Action Research Implementation program, in which teachers study and address a real problem in their own schools. Leadership development and support run throughout. The project's framework targets four needs of rural teachers: reducing isolation, promoting effective STEM instruction, increasing persistence in teaching, and creating instructional leaders. Each need is linked to research-based teaching strategies and to evaluation methods. The evaluation asks how teacher leaders research and implement a problem of practice, how this affects their districts, and how the project affects rural STEM teachers' effectiveness and retention. The team expects to produce a model of rural STEM teacher leadership that other regions can replicate.
Why it matters
Students in rural South Carolina districts could gain from better-supported, longer-staying STEM teachers led by local teacher leaders. The model of rural teacher leadership and action research could be adopted by other regions that face shortages of math and science teachers.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Loralyn Cozy
Illinois Wesleyan University, IL·Education Research
Recruit and retain at least 11 high-achieving undergraduates as Noyce Scholars preparing to become secondary STEM teachers over a six-year period.
Paige Evans
University of Houston, TX·Education Research
Analyze how STEM teacher preparation programs across a multi-university network affect teacher placement and retention in high-need school districts, using quantitative trend analysis.
Jeanna Wieselmann
Southern Methodist University, TX·Education Research
Develop two practice formats for preservice science teachers, AI-driven virtual reality avatar simulations and scaffolded peer teaching, to build skill in leading discussions of real-world scientific problems.
The school
University of South Carolina-Columbia: 22 labs on PI Pages, $277M a year on research, 425 research doctorates a year.
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