MassTeach Data

MassTeach was designed to increase and diversify the statewide STEM teacher workforce by orchestrating initiatives between the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education and faculty across the Commonwealth’s community college and state university system. Recognizing that community colleges represent the diversity of their surrounding communities but acknowledging that these students are underrepresented in the STEM education pipeline, MassTeach aimed to enhance the relationships across the state with a student-focused lens, and provide scholarship and additional program supports to reinforce a clear 2-to-4 year pathway to teaching licensure in a STEM field. The supports buffered inflection points that were highlighted by ten years of statewide higher education enrollment data that represented hundreds of thousands of students and were further resolved by five years of MassTeach data representing twenty-eight individual Scholars. Although a combination of MassTeach and other leveraged resources helped facilitate a smooth 2-to-4 year transition, a single intervention, such as scholarship funding, did not eliminate barriers to participation due to the variety of challenges students faced, especially when compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. The coordinated efforts of MassTeach highlighted the importance of intentional efforts to engage with all students and flexibility to respond to their ongoing needs and pursuit of their career goals.