School of Education faculty member awarded National Science Foundation grant

Ramon B. Goings, Ed.D., assistant professor of educational leadership at Loyola University Maryland’s School of Education has been awarded a $147,823 two-year grant from the National Science Foundation for his project titled “Examining the Persistence and Motivation of STEM Pre-Service Teachers of Color in the Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars Program.”  

The grant will support Goings’ investigation into the factors that propel students of color participating in a pre-service teacher education and scholarship program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) to persist as STEM majors and teacher candidates.

“Understanding the factors that influence pre-service teachers of color to pursue careers in teaching will ultimately help us better recruit students who want to teach at the K–12 level,” said Goings.

Goings, a strong advocate for diversifying the teacher and school leader workforce, will provide insights into program components that best encourage students of color to seek to become STEM educators. 

“As we think about programmatic efforts to diversify the teacher workforce in Maryland and nationally, I hope this project highlights the important work of the Sherman Scholars Program and how the program can serve as a national model,” said Goings. 

Goings will work with Lawrence Clark, Ph.D., associate professor of mathematics education at the University of Maryland College Park, and Carrol Perrino, Ph.D., professor of psychology and director of the Center for Predictive Analytics at Morgan State University, to expand his capacity to carry out rigorous STEM education research. 

The grant is funded by NSF’s Education and Human Resources (EHR) Core Research (ECR): Building Capacity in STEM Education Research program. 

For more information about Goings and his research, visit his website.