Project Nexus, an undergraduate science teacher preparation program, was designed to develop and test a science teacher professional development model that prepares, supports, and sustains upper elementary and middle level specialist science teachers. Of particular interest was the recruitment of a diverse teaching force, particularly African American. We implemented our model at two types of universities: a Historically Black College/University [HBCU], and a Predominately White University/College [PWUC]. Of focus in this year 1 study of the program was the need to collect and analyzing baseline data of all the previous year's graduates of the two institutions' undergraduate elementary/middle school teacher preparation programs. Determining the baseline data would provide an essential measure from which to compare impact of the program after five years of implementation. We administered an established instrument, "New Teachers' Beliefs and Practices of Science." We compared our sample's responses(closed and open-items) by institution and with a sample of national teachers' responses. Findings indicated that along all statements the 2005 graduates reported that they are more likely to use practices, which are recommended by national latest reform documents (AAAS, 1993, National Academies, 2006, NRC, 1996) than the national teachers' group, with higher percentages in the PWUC than in the HBCU. Interesting, however, on the open-ended item we found that more HBCU graduates thought it was very important to be taught in a culturally responsive manner than did the PWUC graduates. Implications for teacher preparation were discussed.
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