Publication

At I AM STEM, the teacher always engaged you while you were learning, and it was fun! They engaged you and they encouraged you to try to get the right answer. If you got it right, there would be a prize and so we wanted to get the correct answers. (Ana, 7th Grade) Teacher quality is being recognized as one of the most powerful levers in improving education (Barton, 2007; Berry, 2013). With increasing student enrollments and high teacher turnover rates, many school districts are struggling to retain effective teachers, and have had to lower their hiring and recruitment standards in order to fill positions (Darling-Hammond, 2013). This practice has resulted in unqualified and underqualified mathematics and science teachers in schools across the nation (Ingersoll, 2003, 2006, 2007). Unfortunately, children who attend high- poverty and ethnically diverse schools are disproportionately affected by the harsh reality of their classes being staffed by inexperienced teachers (Darling-Hammond, 2013). This is because teachers who are more prepared to teach science and mathematics are more likely to be placed with advanced or high-achieving students rather than struggling learners (Horizon Research, 2013).