About the IMPREST project

The 5-year IMPREST study is a project aimed at uncovering and publicizing successful practices in supporting novice science teachers, with the aim of increasing retention rates for science teachers nationwide.

Instead of just asking: “Will the first-year teacher stay to become a second-year teacher?”, we ask: “What is working in state and district efforts to retain science teachers?”

The IMPREST study focuses on districts in four states: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. The project goal is to identify school districts where science teachers are successfully being retained, and then go there and investigate why. In particular, the project aims to uncover successful practices that retain teachers of color, teachers in high-need schools, and prior recipients of Noyce Scholarships. The 2023 NSF Noyce Improving Novice Teacher Retention Conference is the culminating event of the project, and is intended to both disseminate the project's findings as well as provide an additional venue for the hard-won knowledge and efforts of schools and school districts to be shared with a wider audience.