1. Assessing Progress Towards Meeting NAUTeach Program Goals
Abstract: The NAUTeach program is an innovative teacher preparation program for students majoring in science or mathematics that was established at NAU in Modeled after the successful UTeach program at the University of Texas at Austin, NAUTeach was designed to improve the quality of teacher preparation and help alleviate the serious shortages of secondary mathematics and science teachers nationwide. Current data from NAUTeach, one of 29 UTeach replication sites in the nation, demonstrate that NAUTeach is meeting formative program goals of increasing enrollment, developing school partnerships, and establishing a strong curriculum through new courses; important steps towards successfully preparing students for careers as science or math teachers.
Sharon Cardenas, Nena Bloom
Center for Science Teaching & Learning, Northern Arizona University
Goal 1: Increase recruitment & enrollment in teacher preparation programs
Goal 2: Establish a rich pre-service curriculum
The NAUTeach program continues to grow as demonstrated by current enrollment (Table 1), and the students in the program match student diversity at NAU and in CEFNS (Table 2).
Figure 1: Course Sequence for Science Students
Table 2: Percentage of Students by Ethnicity, Fall 2011
Teaching Science and Mathematics (TSM) courses were created to prepare students to teach with strong content knowledge and the ability to integrate technology, inquiry, assessment and project-based instruction. Students receive a BSEd in science or mathematics in 4 years. The course sequence for students in the science program is presented in Figure 1.
NAU
CEFNS
NAUTeach
African American
3.2
2.8
2.9
Native American
4.2
4.6
Asian
1.8
2.2
2.0
Hispanic
13.6
13.5
17.4
White
67.5
68.1
70.1
Other
8.9
8.1
Not Reported
0.8
0.7
1.6
Goal 4: Increase the number of graduates from secondary science and math teacher preparation programs.
Goal 3: Develop K-12 school & community college partners
NAUTeach is forming strong partnerships around the state to prepare future math and science teachers.
A partnership with Mesa Community College (MCC) promotes a pipeline from community college to NAU.
MCC now offers the Step One and STEP Two courses as EDU 111 and 112.
A $1.5M NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program was awarded in 2011 (PI Guerrero) to NAU and Maricopa Community College District. 10 students have received scholarships of $15,000 each; 34 students have participated in teaching-related paid summer internships.
Partnerships with the following K-12 institutions provide placements for our students:
Beaver Creek School
Coconino County Superintendent’s Office
Flagstaff Unified School District.
Maine Consolidated School District
Tuba City Unified School District
Williams Unified School District
Winslow Unified School District
This new program had its first graduates in Spring of 2011 and will have a total of 28 graduates by May 2012 (Table 3). Currently NAUTeach graduates are teaching across the state of Arizona (See Figure 2) and out-of-state.
Table 3: NAUTeach graduates
Figure 2: Teaching placements of NAUTeach graduates in Arizona
NAUTeach.nau.edu