MSP LNC 2013

How People Learn made the important observation that students get turned on to science between the fourth and sixth grades, and minority students are particularly vulnerable to early school influences (http://www.as.wvu.edu/~equity/african.html). Minority Student Pipeline-Math Science Partnership (MSP) 2 is a multifaceted partnership between a large-urban school district, a university system (which includes 4-year institutions), and a community college. A major project focus is the impact of ongoing, high quality inquiry science professional development on middle school teaching and learning. This presentation centers on the experiences of MSP teacher participants and offers an opportunity for teachers to share specific examples of how MSP has affected their practice. More importantly, this panel of teachers will describe challenges and successes that MSP innovations have had on student achievement and interest in science.

This session introduces a professional development observation protocol that evaluators have developed for Project MAST (Mississippi Academy for Science Teaching), a program that prepares teachers from underperforming high schools to teach physical science. Observers take comprehensive notes on the PD sessions' content and pedagogy and then rate each session on 11 criteria (e.g., clarity of session goals; opportunities to engage in science inquiry) derived from past PD research. In our interactive session, we'll discuss why we developed the protocol and how we've used it, then give audience members a chance see it for themselves. We hope to give the MSP community an additional tool to monitor PD implementation and study its effect on teacher and student learning.

We present two tools developed for supporting teachers in the classroom following a content and pedagogy focused professional development program. The first tool is geared to face-to-face observations, while the second is a reflective tool geared for online or hybrid mentoring. These tools were employed in a Freshman Physics PD and leadership development program. We will present the tools and demonstrate a follow-up conversation between a mentor and a mentee who used the reflective tool for online mentoring. Attendees will be asked to comment on the tool and discuss possible generalizations of the tool for other projects. Results of the research conducted on the two tools will be presented.

We believe and expect that teachers should know the standards they are expected to teach, yet it is widely acknowledged that the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) are not written in teacher-friendly language. How, then, can we ensure that teachers gain a deep understanding of the CCSSM? In this interactive session participants will learn a process that has been used by the Milwaukee Mathematics Partnership to deepen teachers' understanding of CCSSM standards and standards progressions.

Can a national higher education association that communicates regularly with presidents and provosts, in concert with disciplinary societies that engage faculty, facilitate institutional change to strengthen science and mathematics teacher preparation? The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), the American Physical Society, and 25 public research universities set out to address this question four years ago, as part of a MSP RETA. We found that engagement of university leaders and prominent support of teacher preparation helped institutions stimulate change. We also found that while most participants valued the heightened involvement of their senior leadership through the galvanizing action of APLU, its impact was most clearly felt by those institutions that achieved campus-wide change.

The development of a shared vision among the stakeholders in our National Science Foundation (NSF-MSP) innovative partnership is important for achieving the goal of improving middle school science achievement. In the initial phase of our project, we explore how STEM faculty navigate the challenges and view inherent benefits while developing a shared vision in preparing science teacher leaders. Guided by design-based research and analyzing a range of data sources, we assert that despite recognition of the mutual benefits, the bureaucratic structures within school districts and the university, and the need to maintain perceived rigor in university classwork, present unique challenges to partnerships, and the development and implementation of science courses that embrace current practices and beliefs in science education.

RITES provides supplemental Professional Development (PD) to 5th through 12th grade science teachers throughout Rhode Island that emphasizes the innovative use of technology and inquiry-based teaching. The premise is that our PD will result in more effective STEM teaching, which will in turn generate gains in student achievement. In addition to demonstrating RITES materials, this presentation chronicles the evolution of our supplemental PD from its inception as PD linked to New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP), to a vehicle for transitioning STEM curricula to an NGSS-based framework for improving student performance in RI and elsewhere. The presentation will document our efforts to maintain program fidelity in the light of unexpected challenges and opportunities related to an educational environment in flux.

As educators increasingly focus on interconnected STEM learning, there will be increased demand for new assessment procedures that capture the richness of these learning experiences while simultaneously assessing the core learning required within each content area. Measuring the implementation of these interconnected learning experiences creates new challenges for evaluators and researchers. This session will explore both the challenges of assessing these new learning paradigms and the types of academic and attitudinal changes that need to be considered. Assessment tools and results from a mature MSP will be shared and discussed through this interactive session.

We describe the Poincaré Institute's efforts to develop interdisciplinary graduate level courses, along with school-based support, for grades 5 to 9 teachers. In the courses, teachers examine the content of middle school mathematics in depth, going beyond what they teach, and from the perspectives of mathematics, mathematics education, and physics, including investigations of students' learning and reasoning. We mention previous collaboration leading to the project and on the evolution of our shared vision towards the improvement of teaching and learning. We illustrate our progress by examining how the first course was structured and later adjusted on the basis of what we have learned from the first cohort of 60 participant teachers from nine New England School Districts.

Appropriate evaluation of MSP programs is essential. One tool for measuring the impact of MSP programs on teaching effectiveness is student achievement data. This requires a coherent picture of student progress before, during, and after a project's professional development program. However, the data available to projects often do not meet the technical requirements of current statistical methods including value-added models (VAMs). Specifically, models assume random assignment of students to classes when, in reality, students are not randomly assigned to classes for a variety of educationally legitimate reasons. This project is investigating the impact of non-randomization on the ability of VAM to detect impact of an MSP project. The examination of non-randomization will be presented and discussed in this session.

This session will explore a model for building distributed leadership capacity to support scaling and sustaining of middle school science MSP project. We will share structures and processes developed for systemic change and distributed leadership. Research shows that leaders primarily exert their influence by setting directions for school improvement, cultivating shared goals and norms, developing human capacity, and modifying structures to create conditions to support student achievement (Leithwood and Riehl 2005). IMSS has cultivated leadership teams from each of our ten districts to partner with project staff in building shared goals, setting a clear direction and building capacity of teachers and administrators to support systemic K12 improvements in science education as part of our MSP project.

In June 2012, the Boston Science Partnership (BSP) thought it was saying goodbye to the Science Education Fellowship (SEF) program it had started with supplemental funding from Noyce to design a master-teacher program. However, the SEF program will continue for the next five years to support at least three more cohorts of Fellows through a scaling up model in the greater Boston area and a replication site in the greater Newark area with a new university partnership. This session will focus on how we received external funding, the elements of SEF that were attractive to the funder, and how the program is evolving in order to meet overcome the challenges of both scale-up and replication efforts.

The Earth and Space Science Partnership is at the midpoint of our 5-year funding cycle In this presentation we reflect on the successes and challenges - anticipated and unforeseen - around which the group has come together. ESSP has successfully maintained and implemented a shared vision around supporting and engaging middle grades teachers of earth and space science within public school districts that are rife with struggles of their own. We will structure discussion around leadership and management practices, engagement with district personnel, and developing ways to achieve respectful accountability across diverse individuals and groups. Findings, best practices and advice from the community will be disseminated by the MSP network and may inform or prepare personnel in new projects.