Texas Wesleyan University has received a one-year $125,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to increase the teaching pipeline for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The Robert Noyce Capacity Building grant is a joint effort between Associate Professor of Education Elizabeth Ward, Ph.D., Dean of Arts and Sciences Ricardo Rodriguez, Ph.D. and Tarrant County College Dean of Behavioral and Social Sciences Shereah Taylor-Love, Ph.D.

The NSF awarded the funding for a collaborative partnership between Texas Wesleyan University (TXWES), Tarrant County College District (TCCD), Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD), the Leadership Academy Network (LAN) and the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). The focus of this Fort Worth-based educational partnership is to change the landscape of STEM teacher recruitment, education and retainment in urban public schools with an overall focus of seeking talented STEM majors and professionals looking to become K-12 mathematics and science teachers.

“This award will allow us to prepare a conduit for students who are interested in teaching in the STEM fields and preparing the scientist, engineers and medical providers of the future,” said Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences Dr. Ricardo Rodriguez.

The project seeks to build the necessary infrastructure to fully prepare the partnership to submit, receive and implement a future Noyce Track 1 Teacher Scholarship grant of up to $1.2 million over a 5-year period. The Track 1 grant projects are expected to develop and implement exemplary STEM education programs to recruit and prepare undergraduate STEM majors to become STEM teachers after graduation. In addition to recruitment funding, the grants come with $10,000 scholarships for third- and fourth-year students who agree to teach at least one year for each year they received the scholarship.

Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program

The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program provides funding to institutions of higher education to provide scholarships, stipends and programmatic support to recruit and prepare STEM majors and professionals to become K-12 teachers. Scholarship and stipend recipients are required to complete two years of teaching in a high-need school district for each year of support. The program seeks to increase the number of K-12 teachers with strong STEM content knowledge who teach in high-need school districts.

The program consists of four tracks: Track 1 – The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarships and Stipends (S&S) Track, Track 2 – The NSF Teaching Fellowships (TF) Track, Track 3 – The NSF Master Teaching Fellowships (MTF) Track, and Track 4 – The Noyce Research Track. In addition, there are Capacity Building awards, which may lead to the development of full proposals in Tracks 1-3. NSF encourages partnerships between four-year institutions and two-year institutions, providing pathways leading to STEM teacher certification.