Noting the constant need for educators in the Permian Basin and the interest from their students, STEM Academy has just added a new pathway to its portfolio — Pathway to Teaching with an emphasis on science and math.
The campus has computer science, engineering or biomedical sciences. STEM uses project-based learning so kids work on real-world problems and develop skills.
“The hope and the goal is that they will complete all four years of that pathway and then go on after they … graduate with us here, that they’ll go on and continue career and education in that pathway,” said Shannon Davidson, executive director of STEM Academy.
The idea for the pathway came about because students graduating from STEM were interested in education. In fact, they hired two former students to teach.
“I think part of that is because they were inspired by our great STEM teachers here. We took a step back, looked at it and decided that there was definitely a need for educators, especially here in the Permian Basin. Even more so, there’s a need for math and science teachers … and so, staying true to our mission of the STEM Academy … we decided that we would open this teacher pathway course with the emphasis on growing future math and science teachers,” Davidson said.
She reached out to Kara Rosenblatt, associate professor of special education at University of Texas Permian Basin, and then got Haidee Jackson, assistant professor of special education at UTPB, involved. Amanda Hart is the coordinator of the program.
Rosenblatt and Jackson, who teach in the graduate program at UTPB, will be teaching students interested in going into special education.
Hart started recruiting students at the tail end of this last school year, so most of it took place during the summer. That meant reaching out directly to parents and calling every single junior and senior.
“Most of these kids were already in their pathways that they had started their freshman year, so my pathway actually starts their junior year, so they get started in a pathway, and then they had to move over into my program. That was an interesting turn, because there were so many that were excited about being in the teaching field that they were able to switch their pathway over into the teaching field,” Hart said.
Right now, she has juniors and seniors who are taking an overview course that covers education systems and different types of jobs that are available within education.
“We just finished our first project. … We hit the ground running just as soon as we could,” Hart said.
The four courses in the pathway are being rolled out in consecutive order. Their junior year, students are supposed to take the overview course. The next three courses are dual credit.
“Basically, it’s junior year, first semester one class; second semester, one class; senior year, first semester one class; senior year, second semester one class. Then they can graduate with their endorsement in teaching, and they’ll have a cord that’s specific to the teaching field that they get to wear at graduation, which is exciting,” Hart said.
Ideally, they would continue at UTPB, but they can transfer the dual credit courses to other universities.
Davidson said it was important for STEM to partner with UTPB.
“We wanted it to be dual credit to increase the chances that the students would go on and successfully complete their education at the university in that degree path, and especially having Amanda here on campus, it’s not an online course, it’s a face-to-face course. And so their success rate is more likely to be positive and a good experience for them,” Davidson said.
Students would not start student teaching until college, but they will have opportunities to do classroom observations, she added.
Rosenblatt said students would also get a peek at lesson planning, practice teaching — getting to know what it’s really like in the classroom as a teacher and working on lesson plans.
“They’ll be building lessons, and they’ll be working with specific grade levels and content areas. The goal is to get them as acclimated as possible, and thinking about their ability to become a teacher and what that looks like, and what the degree plan here at UTPB looks like, so that they can do the checklist,” Hart said.
What makes this different from other teacher preparation programs is it starts the students younger.
Rosenblatt said research shows career programs like this are very successful because if they retain the students, they are much more likely to stay on the teaching path and be retained as teachers once they graduate.
Hart said having STEM students go through the teaching program, become certified and be hired into STEM means they are already familiar with what it was like to be a student.
Jackson said the pipeline supports an important initiative for the Permian Basin in growing its own teachers to support secondary STEM learning for students in the region.
“Every year there’s a need for great teachers. I know our students are in great hands with Dr. Hart. She’s so inspiring. She’ll do a great job giving them the information, not only giving them the information but also helping them see what a rewarding job education can be,” Davidson said.
