Peter Sheppard, Ph.D. Coordinator, STEP thru STEM pshepp@lsu

1. S.T.E.P. thru S.T.E.M. ProgramSecondary Teacher Education Preparationthru Science, Technology, Engineering and MathematicsA COMMUNITY OF SCHOLARS AT WORK Peter Sheppard, Ph.D. Coordinator, STEP thru STEM pshepp@lsu.edu

2. S.T.E.P. thru S.T.E.M. • In response to the critical shortage of qualified STEM teachers, LSU faculty from math, the sciences, and education collaborated to create a unique 4-year undergraduate program that allows participants to obtain both a bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline as well as complete all the necessary secondary teacher certification requirements. • This program, now referred to as S.T.E.P. thru S.T.E.M., represents unprecedented collaboration among STEM faculty, education faculty and East Baton Rouge Parish School System, among others. Sheppard

3. Program Goal • Goal • Produce 80 “highly qualified” graduates with teacher certification in a STEM content area. Sheppard

4. Program Objectives • Objectives • Recruit and retain students for the new program; • Provide scholarships for students; • Enhance communication among university and school personnel involved in designing, teaching and operating the program as well as teachers and students impacted by the program • Recruit, train and support mentor teachers. • Develop and implement a permanent evaluation system for the program; • Train an "induction specialist" whose responsibilities will be to monitor and solve problems for graduates during their first two years. Sheppard

5. What Makes STEP thru STEM Unique for Students? • Students earn degrees in Math or a Science Field and earn certification with secondary ed. concentration within 128 hours. • Students visit high school classrooms in 1st SEM. of junior year for field experiences. • Students are under the guidance of accomplished mentor teachers. • Students can be offered teacher certification as secondary career option. • Scholarship Opportunities Sheppard

6. Course Requirements • The first course, EDCI 2001, can also be used as a general education social science elective. • This three credit hour course is an introduction to contemporary educational issues, especially as these are situated historically, culturally, socially, and politically; topics include history, theory, and politics of education, especially as related to gender, race, class, and technology. • This course is ideally taken in the 2nd semester of student’s sophomore year. Sheppard

7. Course Requirements • EDCI 3001 BIOL 3001 • EDCI 3002 BIOL 3002 • EDCI 4003 BIOL 4003 EDCI 4005 (Student Teaching) • EDCI 4004 BIOL 4004 Sheppard

8. STEP thru STEM Scholarship Awards thru 2006 Sheppard

9. What Makes STEP thru STEM Unique for Mentor Teachers ? • Mentor Teachers are recruited based on their ability to embrace reform based teaching. • Mentor Teachers are compensated for hosting early field experiences. • Mentor Teachers engage in the process of designing field experiences. • Lead Mentor Teachers train and recruit future mentor teachers. Sheppard

10. Mentor Teachers • Mentor teachers are expected to be model educators, facilitators, content specialist, and critical friends to our pre-service teachers. • Mentor teacher have an increased responsibility in the preparation and training of pre-service teachers because of the field-intensive design of this program. • Seven Lead Mentors are currently in the program; eventually an additional 44 cooperating mentor teachers will be hired. Sheppard

11. What Makes S.T.E.P. thru S.T.E.M. Unique for the University? • Faculty from Education, Math, Chemistry, Physics, and Biological Sciences take responsibility in training future teachers. • Faculty in math and science departments interact with high school science and mathematics teachers. • Low faculty to student ratio in 1 hour subject matter seminars (a.k.a. STEP Courses). Sheppard

12. On Campus Recruiting • Target Audience: Future Educators and Traditional Math, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics Majors. • Identify and Isolate Core Courses in math and science fields-specifically sophomore level courses. • Presentations/Brief Survey • Data Collection through Self Reported Survey Responses. Sheppard

13. Recruiting • Sophomore Level STEM Courses are our target courses. • Faculty of these courses are contacted in order to obtain endorsement to present information to their students. • Brief presentations are made to the classes, highlighting the major features of the program • Surveys are distributed in order to obtain self-reported demographic information and general interest in the program. • Gathered data leads to follow-up contact with all interested students. Sheppard

14. Student Reflections • “I wanted to be a teacher but my parents wanted me to get a “real” degree that I could do something with if I decided not to teach later in life. This was the perfect solution to the problem.” • “My first semester in this program, I was assigned to an inner-city middle school. My first day, I thought “It’s going to be a long semester.” Now, after completing the semester, I think I would rather a middle school.” • “I thought going out to the different high schools around the parish was great. It provided me with “on-the-job training” with a safety net. I was able to observe different teaching methods and the ways in which teachers handled disruptive students. Then, I was able to discuss my feelings with the teacher which was a big plus Sheppard

15. Reflections from Mentor Teachers • “I think of a teacher-candidate as an apprentice. If I were an apprentice I would want to work with the best, I would not want to work with someone who is below average. People who are interested in sports like to observe, learn, and admire the best athletes; they certainly do not try to imitate the mediocre ones. I want to model myself as after the best.” • “It is also important that they see things from a teaching perspective because they are so used to seeing from a student perspective. As a student you do not really think of all things and ways a teacher tries to get all of the students to learn. You mostly concentrate on how you learn. It allows them to get a bigger picture from the teacher’s perspective.” Sheppard

16. Points of Pride • The Secondary Education Concentration is the largest concentration among Mathematics Majors. • We currently have ninety-seven science and mathematics majors enrolled in the secondary education concentration. That is more enrollees than the UTEACH (UT-Austin) program had at this stage in its development. • The average ACT score for the science and mathematics students pursuing the secondary education concentration is 25.02 which is higher than the university average for enrolled students which is 24.0. • Among our cadre of outstanding students are: • A mathematics major who became a University Medalist for maintaining a 4.0 his entire career. • A biological sciences major who completed the program and was accepted into medical school. • A biological sciences major who scored a perfect score of 36 on the ACT. • At least two students earned the ETS Recognition of Excellence award for scoring among the top 15% of students nationwide taking the Praxis II subject matter and Pedagogy segment of the exam. • A biological sciences majors received the College of Basic Sciences Outstanding Sophomore Student Award . • A mathematics major received a summer internship with the Chicago Public Schools. Sheppard