NMT Secures $2.74 Million Grant From Department of Education

October 16, 2018


Five-year grant will create four staff positions, expand curriculum for Alternative Licensure Program

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SOCORRO, N.M. – New Mexico Tech recently received a five-year $2.74 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to increase the number of Hispanic secondary teachers who specialize in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) areas.

The grant will support the undergraduate Alternative Licensure Program, or ALP, and the Masters of Science for Teachers program, or MST, which are guided under the auspices of the Department of Psychology and Education.

The ALP program allows students to earn a bachelor’s and a teaching license in four years. The educational offering is designed to qualify teacher candidates to teach in public elementary schools and secondary schools. Student teachers learn pedagogy in the ALP program, while the MST program is for professional teachers and focuses strictly on STEM content. The MST Program focuses on teaching science and math content to currently licensed teachers who may want to pursue endorsements and/or a master’s degree in STEM.

Dr. Mark Samuels, who is the director of the program and chair of the Department of Psychology and Education said, “Students can come in as undergrads, get their bachelor’s, and get a teacher’s certification. Then, they can continue in the MST program.”

Titled Advancing the Teaching and Training of Hispanic Educators in STEM in New Mexico, or AT-THE-STEM-NM, the grant will allow Tech to add four staff positions to help manage the program, develop curricula, and design new classes.

President Dr. Stephen Wells said he’s pleased to see Tech’s STEM educational offerings in secondary education expand in scope.

“Very simply, I’m pleased to see the success of our leaders in the MST program in obtaining this federal funding,” Wells said. “Not only will this allow us to significantly enhance educational opportunities for STEM teachers in New Mexico, but we will be able to manage this program more efficiently, develop more robust curriculum, and add key educational staff at New Mexico Tech.”

Building on a strong graduate program in education, New Mexico Tech will expand the Alternative Licensure Program for undergraduate students and enhance its Masters of Science for Teachers, or MST, with additional degree options.

The undergraduate ALP will offer all the courses needed to teach on the secondary level, focusing primarily on the pedagogy necessary to be an effective teacher. Assessments of changes in the teaching of ALP students will be made based on videotapes of their teaching, blindly rated by expert teachers, at the beginning and end of their student teaching course. Evaluations of the ALP will be performed through test scores on state licensure exams, and later, measures of effectiveness based on the changes in student performance in the classroom in which ALP students teach.

As part of this project, New Mexico Tech will redesign 52 math and science courses, create five new mathematics courses and nine new computer science courses. These new courses will enable New Mexico Tech to offer two additional master’s degree options for teachers. These will be added to our current options in biology, chemistry, geology, mathematics, and physics.

Samuels and his colleagues will assess improvements in science content of the MST program using pre- and post-tests of their knowledge in biology, chemistry, computer science, geology, mathematics, and physics. They will also evaluate changes in student beliefs and confidence in their ability to teach scientific concepts. The program will track teachers’ ratings in New Mexico, as well as changes in the test performance of their students. The grant calls for evaluating whether improving teacher STEM knowledge improves student knowledge in STEM, as well as if it improves student enthusiasm for STEM (motivation and enjoyment of science).

By building this undergraduate program, New Mexico Tech will create an integrated program in which students can obtain a bachelor’s of science degree with alternative licensure and an MST degree within six years, while spending a year in our local schools. The strong partnerships New Mexico Tech already has with 58 of the 89 school districts in the state, most of which have high concentration of Hispanic students, will allow New Mexico Tech to increase the number of Hispanics teaching in STEM fields.

– NMT –