Indiana University

Skip to:

  1. Search
  2. Breadcrumb Navigation
  3. Content
  4. Browse by Topic
  5. Services & Resources
  6. Additional Resources
  7. Multimedia News

Media Contacts

Chuck Carney
School of Education
ccarney@indiana.edu
812-856-8027

Last modified: Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Funding to add fellowship program for science and math teachers

IU School of Education preparing teachers for Indianapolis and metro districts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 23, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS -- Supplemental National Science Foundation funding will expand the already successful Robert Noyce Scholarship program at the IU School of Education at IUPUI to establish the Noyce Teaching Fellowship.

Three Noyce Scholars will be named Noyce Fellows and will receive additional scholarship money to complete work toward an M.S. degree in secondary education. Selection of Noyce Fellows begins in December, with coursework to start in January.

Charlie Barman

Charlie Barman

The Noyce Scholarship funds 18 hours of graduate coursework, half the number needed for the M.S. The new fellowship will provide for the remaining 18 hours. Additionally, Noyce Fellows will receive a $26,000 stipend over two years and have mentorship support from a "university coach" as well as a mentor teacher in their school.

Noyce Scholars all commit to teaching two years in the Indianapolis Public Schools or other high-needs districts in the metropolitan area, so each will already be teaching their own classes.

"It really elevates the prestige of receiving a Noyce Scholarship," said Charlie Barman, director of the Urban Center for the Advancement of STEM Education (UCASE), a joint project between the Schools of Education, Science, and Engineering and Technology at IUPUI. The primary mission of UCASE is to increase the ranks of math and science teachers at the secondary level.

"But in addition," Barman said, "it's going to produce for us three people we see as key catalysts for change and three people who will be excellent mentors for us in the future." At the end of the program, he said, the fellows should be "master teachers" who can provide role models for peers.

Those selected for the Noyce Fellowship will have excelled in the "Transition to Teaching" (T2T) program, showing excellent progress toward good teaching practice. Fellows will come from groups typically under-represented as math and science teachers. "What it's saying is you have been identified as someone we really think is doing an excellent job," Barman said.

The Noyce Scholarship program at the IU School of Education at IUPUI is one of the most successful of the NSF-funded programs across the country, Barman said. The program at IUPUI usually has higher enrollment than others participating in the national program. Since the Noyce scholarships began in 2005, 27 Noyce Scholars at IUPUI have completed T2T. Ten more started coursework over the summer.

The graduate Noyce Scholars program at IUPUI is in addition to an undergraduate scholarship program to encourage science students to become high school or middle school science teachers. Students began enrolling with those scholarships this year.

There is also a Noyce Scholarship program to attract math teachers on the Indiana University Bloomington Campus. In 2006, the IU School of Education and the Department of Mathematics in IUB's College of Arts and Sciences teamed to earn an NSF grant to create undergraduate and graduate scholarships over four years.

Aside from simply adding more math and science teachers to the workforce, Barman said, the program is serving high-needs schools in Indianapolis and the surrounding area very well.

"We're seated here in an area where we are surrounded by high-needs schools, and they are in need of qualified science or math teachers," he said. "This is one way we are really able to help."