The National Center for STEM Education is launching a new partnership with Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) and the City University of New York (CUNY) to strengthen pathways into STEM teaching and help address persistent shortages of qualified middle and high school STEM educators. The three-year initiative, Building Onramps to STEM Teaching, is supported by a $2 million dollar private foundation investment and will focus on recruiting STEM majors into teaching careers through targeted recruitment and innovative, low-barrier opportunities to explore the profession.
The project reflects a core priority of the National Center for STEM Education: building stronger talent pipelines into STEM education careers while helping colleges and universities expand capacity to attract, prepare, and retain the next generation of STEM teachers.
Converting Interest into Engagement
Across the country, schools continue to face shortages of certified STEM teachers. At the same time, research and experience from across the national UTeach network demonstrates that about a third of STEM majors express an interest in teaching but never encounter a clear pathway to explore it as a career option.
This new initiative is built around the powerful idea of leveraging the interest in teaching that already exists among STEM students by actively promoting teaching as career choice and providing early, accessible opportunities to explore teaching and earn teacher certification alongside their disciplinary degrees. Through newly developed Exploring Teaching courses, students will gain firsthand exposure to the profession while learning about pathways to certification and careers in education.
Over the past two decades, the UTeach network of programs has demonstrated the effectiveness of this approach. Across its 54 university partners, many successful STEM teachers began their journey uncertain whether teaching was the right fit. Early exploration opportunities helped them discover a rewarding career in education.
A Partnership with Potential for National Impact
The project brings together institutions with significant reach and influence in teacher preparation.
Central Connecticut State University serves nearly 9,500 students and has a strong tradition of community engagement and educator preparation. Meanwhile, CUNY, the nation's largest urban public university system, prepares more than one-third of all new teachers hired annually by New York City Public Schools.
“CCSU has always had strong relationships with local school districts in Connecticut and this project is another opportunity for us to deepen those partnerships and better address persistent teacher shortages across the state through building on our strong preparation foundation in ways tailored to meet the needs of our STEM major population,” commented Paula Talty, Special Assistant to the Provost.
Together, these institutions will develop recruitment strategies, establish introductory teaching experiences, strengthen teacher preparation pathways, and improve transitions from community colleges into bachelor's-level certification programs. The project aims to enroll approximately 360 students in the new Exploring Teaching courses over the grant period, creating a pathway for many of those students to continue into formal STEM teacher preparation programs. Participating institutions also plan to establish permanent recruitment structures and program improvements that will continue after grant funding concludes.
“This project will support faculty and staff across four CUNY colleges to come together to better understand how to engage our STEM students in teaching pathways, work to remove barriers to participation, and optimize our STEM teacher preparation pathways,” said Ashleigh Thompson, CUNY’s University Dean for Education. “I fully expect to develop new practices through this project that will benefit the entire CUNY system.”
Advancing the Mission of the National Center for STEM Education
The project serves as an early example of how the National Center for STEM Education is working to connect research, practice, and partnership to address national workforce challenges.
The Center's mission is to identify, test, and scale evidence-based strategies that strengthen STEM education systems and expand opportunities for students and educators. By helping universities create effective recruitment structures and sustainable pathways into STEM teaching, the Center seeks to increase the number of highly qualified STEM educators entering classrooms and remaining in the profession. This initiative directly supports that vision by developing a model that can be refined, evaluated, and ultimately expanded to institutions across the country.
"Our goal is not simply to recruit more students into teacher preparation programs," said Kimberly Hughes, Director of the National Center for STEM Education. "We are working with our partners to build lasting structures that help STEM students discover the impact they can have as educators and create pathways that make teaching an accessible and compelling career choice."
Through this effort, the National Center for STEM Education continues its commitment to advancing evidence-based solutions that strengthen the STEM educator pipeline and prepare the workforce needed for the future.