The (TPR)2 project aims to serve the national need of addressing STEM teacher shortages in rural communities. Staffing schools with high quality STEM teachers has been a persistent challenge for rural schools for the past century, however, to date, relatively few resources have been allocated toward the improvement of teacher education to prepare teachers for rural places.  Addressing STEM teacher workforce needs in rural America is critical for future student success. This project aims to address STEM teacher workforce challenges through a focus on how educator preparation programs (EPPs) address the unique contexts of rurality and teaching STEM in rural settings and by identifying the programmatic features of educator preparation programs that support rural STEM teacher recruitment, retention, and persistence.  

(TPR)2, a collaboration of 14 partners with Noyce projects from across the U.S, has three main goals: 

1. To investigate the impact of EPP programmatic features on program completers’ intention to teach, persistence, and retention.

2. To engage in deep reflection leading to programmatic adjustments within collaborating partners’ educator preparation programs.

3. To share emerging knowledge about programmatic features of EPPs that support program completers’ intention to teach, their employment decisions, and persistence and retention in rural schools. 

The overarching theory guiding this study is that if educator preparation programs explicitly address rurality trough programmatic features including context (e.g., addressing the strengths and challenges of rural teaching and stereotypes about rural places), curriculum (e.g., a focus on place-based instruction and rural field experiences), and conveyance (e.g., recruiting from rural or online delivery) program completers may be more likely to choose and continue teaching in rural schools (Azano et al, 2019). 

Research is needed to validate this emerging theory and evaluate the impact of these programmatic features. This foundational research project uses a longitudinal, repeated-measures, mixed-methods research design to identify rural-focused programmatic features and track program completers’ intentions to teach, first placement, persistence, and retention and is expected to produce generalizable evidence to guide educator preparation programs. Findings will be disseminated both internally (to collaborating partners) and to broader audiences (e.g., STEM education, teacher education, and rural education communities). 

The broader impact of this collaborative research project will be a greater understanding of the programmatic features of educator preparation programs and Noyce programs that support rural STEM teacher persistence and retention, which can lead to a more diverse and effective STEM teaching force for rural schools.