Email correspondence

Attachment 4a:

Email from NSF to Principal Investigators Introducing the Evaluation

Subject: [Subject line of email from NSF Program Director]

Dear Noyce PI Community,

I am writing on behalf of the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (the Noyce Program) to inform you about an upcoming external evaluation of the Noyce Program. We have contracted two external organizations, WhitworthKee Consulting (the WKC Evaluation Team) and SRI International (the SRI Evaluation Team), who will be helping with this. They will be focusing on evaluating different aspects of the Noyce Program to help inform how we can better support the Noyce community in addressing the critical needs of recruiting, preparing, and retaining highly effective elementary and secondary mathematics and science teachers and teacher leaders working in high-need school districts.

The WKC Evaluation Team will focus on understanding the perceptions of the Noyce Program within the community and the merit review process. The WKC Evaluation Team website provides more information about their background and their role in the external evaluation process: https://whitworthkee.com/nsf-noyce-program-evaluation/. The SRI Evaluation Team will focus on the impact of the Noyce Program concerning providing resource support and building knowledge and connections. The SRI Evaluation Team website provides more information about their background and their role in the external evaluation process: https://www.sri.com/research/education-learning/.

Over the next 3 years, you and/or your colleagues (e.g., co-PIs, scholars, fellows, faculty members, collaborating institutions, high-need school districts, schools, school administrators) may be asked to participate in data collection activities such as surveys, interviews, and/or focus groups. The invitations may come to you and/or your colleagues in Fall 2024 and may continue through Fall 2025. Some of you may have already met the evaluation teams at the Noyce Summit in July, and there will be more opportunities to meet the evaluation teams during regional conferences throughout the year.

Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback with the WKC and SRI Evaluation Teams to help inform the Noyce Program and ensure we can better address the needs of the STEM Teacher Preparation community at large over the next 20 years.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. We look forward to your help in making this evaluation a success.

With kind regards,

Jennifer