Teacher Education Annotated Report Excerpts

Excerpt 1 [Los Angeles Collaborative]

Project Features

Project Participants, Audiences & Other Stakeholders

LACTE is a five-year project that brings together five four-year institutions and five community colleges. Each of the four-year institutions is partnered with a community college shown in Table 1. The collaboration also includes "master teachers" from elementary and secondary schools, the California Museum of Science and Industry, and scientific industry participants.

Project Features:
Describes project goals

LACTE Objectives

LACTE's five-year program specifically intends to:

• Build collaborative relationships and develop a network of students, faculty, and administrators;
  
  
• Increase the number of undergraduate students in mathematics and the sciences, especially those from under represented groups, who plan on teaching as a career and support those students through their academic programs;
  
  
• Refine the present course of study at each institution to reflect the integration of mathematics, science and technology in the pre-service content preparation of undergraduate students;
  
  
• Provide faculty development opportunities that result in improved classroom instruction and student learning;
  
  
• Develop internships and other experiential activities for students; and
  
  
• Disseminate program information to other undergraduate institutions for replication.

Excerpt 2 [Philadelphia Collaborative]

Project Features:
Describes short and long-term project goals

An underlying principle of the CETP is that, "Teachers teach as they were taught." Consequently, pre-service training for Elementary Education Majors should model teaching methods in Math and Science which represent "best practices," determined by research, and established as standards by NCTM and Project 2061. If the Project is successful the evaluation should produce the following results:

• Student participants should demonstrate more positive attitudes toward mathematics and science than non-participants.
  
  
• Student participants should perform at higher levels academically within areas and domains emphasized by the Project's courses and programs.
  
  
• Upon completion of the CETP Program student teachers should teach more effectively than non-participants.

Excerpt 3 [Arizona Collaborative]

Project Features:
Describes project implementation

The first workshop conducted in the summer of 1995 introduced participants to Modeling Instruction within the context of Newtonian mechanics. The models of Newtonian mechanics were laid out explicitly in the curriculum materials developed by the project staff, and distributed to all participants for use in the workshop and in their own courses. No materials written by the project staff were distributed in the second workshop conducted in the summer of 1996. Instead, participants engaged in reviewing third-party materials, outside of mechanics, that are somewhat aligned with the modeling philosophy. At each site, participants were divided into groups, and, using those materials, each group assumed the responsibility of developing during the workshop basic models in one of the following fields: electricity and magnetism, light and optics, heat and thermodynamics with a unified approach to energy. Each group then discussed the models they developed with their peers and refined them subsequently. Furthermore, developers of CASTLE, Physics InfoMall, and Visual Mechanics visited each site and introduced their projects to workshop participants.

Excerpt 4 [Oklahoma Collaborative]

In the spring of 1997, the O-TEC evaluation team was formed to serve a formative role in the development of the O-TEC initiatives. The team has operated with the philosophy that, much like O-TEC itself, evaluation is most effective as a collaborative effort. We believe that we are not just observers but are active partners in implementation of the O-TEC grant. With this perspective in mind, in this section we review the goals of the grant and discuss the initiatives that were designed to meet those goals. We then discuss, in a general sense, our approach to evaluation.

Project Features:
Describes project goals

The purpose of O-TEC is to recruit and prepare elementary and secondary teachers to use hands-on, cooperative, and inquiry-based instructional techniques for science and math education. To this end, O-TEC has three primary goals:

• To increase the effectiveness of efforts to recruit people to the teaching profession.
  
  
• To restructure the undergraduate pre-service curriculum in Oklahoma to emphasize hands-on and inquiry-based methods for teaching science and mathematics.
  
  
• To enhance retention of new teachers by strengthening their support systems during their initial years in the classroom.

Project Features

O-TEC collaborators launched a series of initiatives to meet these goals. These include:

• Reform of math and science teacher education curricula in the state of Oklahoma, in order to emphasize innovative teaching techniques, such as hands-on learning, directed inquiry, cooperative groups, and the integration of technology into the classroom.
  
  
• Development of summer academies in which pre-service teachers, para-teachers, and in-service teachers learn to teach using hands-on, inquiry-based methods and then apply these techniques in actual course delivery by teaching mini-courses to children from local communities. These academies are expected to encourage teachers to use state-of-the-art-teaching methodologies and to increase participants' interest in pursuing math and science education as a career.
  
  
• Programmatic efforts to facilitate collaboration within and between higher education institutions in Oklahoma. These efforts focus on encouraging a diverse set of educational institutions to identify common interests in higher education and where, possible, to work together to improve teacher preparation in Oklahoma.
  (…)

Project Participants, Audiences & Other Stakeholders

The sites varied on participant demographics and number of participants. The breakdown of participants by site is shown below:

Excerpt 5 [Maryland Collaborative]

Project Participants, Audiences & Other Stakeholders:
Describes participating institutions and project leaders

Higher education institutions involved in this grant include a number of University of Maryland institutions. Public school districts involved include Baltimore County and Prince George's County. The project management team consists of <name of person>, Project Director, Co-Principal Directors <name of person>, <name of person>, and <name of person>, and Executive Director <name of person>. Various committees working on the MCTP include the Content Teaching Committee, the Pedagogical Committee, and the Research Group. These committees are charged with developing and researching new college-level content and methods courses for recruited teacher candidates who started in the program in the fall of 1994.

Excerpt 6 [Louisiana Collaborative]

Project Features:
Describes project goals

LaCEPT's mission is "to promote systemic reform in the teaching and learning of mathematics and science as regards the preparation of teachers, grades K-12, and to meet the needs of Louisiana for more and better-prepared teachers." To achieve this mission LaCEPT's original 20 goals have been compressed into six, each having different strategies and a flexible timeline. Some goals have been eliminated (the statewide research initiative) or de-emphasized in light of LaCEPT's evolution from an experimental model to one of sustaining reforms.

1. To reorder campus priorities and policies
2. To establish partnerships between school, campus, and community sectors
3. To expand the boundaries of research and practice
4. To maintain national standards for teacher performance as students progress from pre-service, to certification, to extended in-service
5. To identify, define, and vigorously implement successful models which reflect LaCEPT experiences and evolving national standards
6. To institutionalize curricular reforms that have occurred on LaCEPT campuses, and eventually to disseminate these to all campuses in the state.

Project Features:
Describes project goal revision based on the evaluation process

LaCEPT has passed its midpoint and has been strengthened by two major reviews during 1996; consequently many of its original objectives have been expanded, modified, or deleted. The defined objectives represent the coalescing of insights from the Collaborative Agreement, the original proposal, communications with NSF program officers and SRI International personnel, reports of the Visiting and CRP Evaluation Committees, and discussions of the reorganized Steering Committee and Task Forces. The activities noted herein represent not only specific events funded through LaCEPT but also the broader range of LaSIP and LaCEPT activities that impact teacher preparation.

Excerpt 7 [Oregon Collaborative]

Project Features:
Describes project goal

The Oregon Collaborative for Excellence in the Preparation of Teachers (OCEPT) was created to improve the math and science preparation of future teachers in Oregon and increase the state's teacher workforce diversity.

Project Context:
Relates project context to broader NSF objectives

While these goals are consistent with those of the NSF CETP program in general, certain conditions in Oregon's educational system require different strategies for reaching these goals than is possible in many other states. First, most teacher education programs in Oregon are offered at the graduate level only. Students preparing to teach generally receive their bachelor's degree in another discipline (not education) and then enter a graduate teacher licensure program, often at another institution. Identifying students as prospective teachers while they are still undergraduates is problematic, particularly since they themselves may not yet be considering teaching as a career. Advising for these students at the undergraduate level is generally inadequate. As a result of this disconnect between liberal arts and education programs, many mathematics and science faculty do not see themselves as teacher educators.

Second, to compound this situation, student mobility among institutions in Oregon is high. Students may begin at a community college, where they take their introductory math and science courses, before moving on to a four-year college, or they may move back and forth between two- and four-year schools or even be enrolled simultaneously. Community college faculty, while offering many excellent science and mathematics courses that are highly appropriate for future teachers, are even more disconnected from teacher education programs than four-year college faculty.

Third, the organization that licenses teachers in Oregon, the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission (TSPC), does not require specific course work for licensure, only passing scores on standardized tests. It is up to teacher education programs whether to require specific course work in mathematics and science, and many do not, partly because of market pressures to attract students who might be deterred from applying if they lack the required math and science background. Prospective elementary teachers, if they have taken math or science, would have done so only as part of their general education requirements, which vary greatly from institution to institution and may not include either math or science.

Fourth, while this may now be changing, there has not been a shortage of teachers in recent years. According to a TSPC report, in 1996 only half of newly licensed elementary teachers were employed in Oregon public elementary schools by September 30; between one-half and two-thirds of newly licensed secondary teachers in math and science had jobs in the fall. Where a shortage does exist is in the diversity of the teacher workforce; only 2-3% of teachers overall are from minority groups, and even less in math and science. This shortage is particularly evident in urban and rural areas where minority populations are concentrated.

Finally, excellent programs to support students from underrepresented groups interested in pursuing higher education in general and science/mathematics in particular exist at both the pre-college and college level, but these programs often do not communicate with one another, and many science/mathematics faculty do not know of them or know how to connect their students with them.

Project Context:
Identifies influences of local context

In spite of these challenges, Oregon also enjoys some real strengths which make this an ideal place and time to achieve OCEPT's goals:

• Science and mathematics faculty at many institutions have a strong history of educational reform, including many federally- and privately-funded course and curriculum development projects. Nationally-recognized leaders in physics and biology reform are among OCEPT's leaders, and a strong network of collaboration among physics, biology, and mathematics faculty is already in place. Faculty in other disciplines also offer a wealth of knowledge and experience about college teaching and learning. The community colleges' personal, student-centered environment and their faculties' focus on teaching excellence provide particularly appropriate experiences for future teachers.
  
  
• Systemic school reform is well under way in Oregon, including a move towards standards-based instruction using the Oregon Benchmarks, performance-based assessments at 4th, 8th, and 12th grade levels, Certificates of Mastery rather than traditional seat-time-based diplomas, and a new portfolio-based system of college admissions. Teachers at many pilot schools are receiving extensive professional development to help them learn to teach effectively in this environment, and are thoroughly involved in planning as well as implementing reforms. Initial statewide assessments in mathematics have shown a real need for educational improvement, and 1998's science assessment is likely to be even more telling.
  
  
• New teacher licensure requirements have recently been instituted by TSPC, requiring students to be licensed in a combination of two grade levels: early childhood-elementary (age 3-grade 5); elementary-middle (grades K-8); and middle-secondary (grades 5-12). As a result, teacher education programs are in the midst of revising their programs, with particular attention to the preparation of middle-level teachers.
  
  
• Oregon is enjoying strong economic growth, particularly in high-tech industries, so that the argument for a scientifically and mathematically skilled workforce is particularly persuasive.

Describes project goals and achievement strategies

In this context of advantages and challenges, OCEPT is employing four general strategies to achieve its goals: the development of a statewide collaborative network among mathematics, science, engineering, and technology (SME&T) and education faculty in two- and four-year, public and private colleges; the development of courses, curricula, and programs which will strengthen future teachers' preparation in mathematics and science; opportunities for faculty professional development and pedagogical learning; and programs to recruit, retain, and support excellent students from their undergraduate years to their first years of teaching, particularly those from underrepresented groups.

Project Participants, Audiences & Other Stakeholders:
Identifies participant sub-groups which design the evaluation activities

At its February 1998 meeting, the Team began to organize itself into several subgroups: students; Faculty Fellow and Mentor Team development, and change in teaching practice; collaborative development, including institutional change; diversity The group will continue to meet quarterly for half-days but will conduct more of its work in subgroups both at these meetings and between meetings. The subgroups may choose to recruit others to work with their subgroups These subgroups will also recommend to the Team how a particular evaluation activity should be carried out and which special research studies should receive priority for funding from grant evaluation funds.

Excerpt 8 [New York Collaborative]

Project Features:
Describes project goal

Among others, the major goals of the New York Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation (NYCETP) during the first three years include: (1) fostering the development of collaboration within and between the five campuses of the City University of New York (CUNY) and New York University (NYU) which are members of the NYCEPT; (2) faculty development emphasizing curriculum and teaching standards (i.e., NCTM & NCR Standards documents); and (3) the design and development of curriculum.

Describes evaluation activities related to project goals

Two evaluation practices have facilitated the attainment of the first two goals, fostering collaboration between faculty on different campuses and faculty development, while stimulating the Collaborative's efforts to begin accomplishing the third goal, development of curriculum. Faculty were identified to write the case studies and to be "case studied" with the goal of fostering interactions between faculty teaching similar courses at different institutions. In addition, the process of reviewing a course in great depth or of being studied by another faculty member was reported, in follow-up interviews, as having helped the individual faculty to focus on their own course revisions. This served the goal of faculty development.

Excerpt 9 [Science PALs Project, University of Iowa]

Project Features:
Describes project goals

The continued focus of the Science Pals project is to facilitate the systemic reform of a local school’s science program through teacher enhancement. Specifically, Science Pals attempts to enhance teachers':

1. Understanding of the specific science concepts and the important "big ideas" defined as learning outcomes for each science unit undertaken.
2. Awareness of "prior knowledge," "misconceptions," and/or "naïve understandings" that learners bring to the classroom regarding science concepts.
3. Use of strategies such as reading children’s literature in the classroom and at home activities with parents as a vehicle for students to talk about and summarize their prior ideas about target science concepts.
4. Ability to plan effective classroom instruction — "science as inquiry" activities that emphasize the identification and discussion of evidence which supports, doesn’t support, or rejects various student understandings in the class, challenges the learners to critically evaluate their understandings, and encourages students to rethink them.
5. Use of assessment alternatives to document changes in their teachings and their students’ learning.
6. Leadership skills as science education reformers and advocates of science literacy.

Furthermore, the Science Pals project has increased its emphasis and effort to address the dissemination of ideas, products, and processes related to science and the use of parents, activities, and literature. The dissemination effort has progressively broadened its focus from individual teachers to district-wide, state-wide, and national perspectives.

Excerpt 10 [TEAMSS, George Washington University]

Project Features

Teaching Enhanced Applications for Middle School Science Using Videodisc and Hypermedia Technologies (TEAMSS), funded by the National Science Foundation, was planned to identify outstanding middle school classroom science teachers; establish linkages between them, working scientists, science resource specialists, and university professors; and support planned activities over a year that can individually and collectively foster professional growth, expand knowledge, skills, and understandings, and encourage reflective practices among science educators.

The TEAMSS project incorporates three major activity components designed to take advantage of local and regional resources: (a) a four-week intensive summer workshop that involves technology training, lecture-demonstrations, hands-on computer lab experiences, and team project development; (b) a summer shadow-a-scientist program; and (c) school year follow-up activities including team meetings, teacher implementation of science lessons and curriculum projects developed in the summer, teacher-planned and developed inservice presentations to their home schools, Saturday sessions, site visits by the principal investigators, and individual participation in a regional science education conference.

Describes project goals

TEAMSS Objectives

Throughout all the program activities, five objectives are interwoven:

1. Build teachers’ technology skills;
2. Enhance content knowledge in life sciences, in the pedagogy of cooperative learning, and in the middle school concept;
3. Increase awareness of science, education, and technology resources;
4. Promote the integration of new skills and content;
5. Increase and strengthen professional relationships of education colleagues and scientists.

Excerpt 11 [City Science Workshop, City College of New York]

Project Participants, Audiences & Other Stakeholders

The project has developed over a three year period during which 74 teachers from 20 schools in the South Bronx and Harlem have participated. The schools are located in poor and working class neighborhoods. The teachers entered the project in three phases. In the first year 25 teachers entered, in the second 26 teachers, and in the final phase 23 teachers came into the project. The participants of the project comprise a group which is 5% male and 95% female. Twenty-one percent are white and are from different ethnic backgrounds. Forty-one percent are black. Of this 41%, 36% are African American,, 4% West-Indian and 1% Ethiopian. Thirty-seven percent are Hispanic and are also of varied backgrounds, primarily Puerto-Rican and Dominican.

Project Features

Participants were involved in the following core activities:

• Participation in hands-on workshops at City College
• Carrying out science projects in the classrooms using an inquiry approach
• Keeping journals of classroom activities
• Visits to field sites

Participants attended weekly seminars at City College that were structured on a constructivist/inquiry approach to education. They worked on projects in groups and then would have discussions/conferences towards the end of the classes. Participants would then develop science projects for their classrooms based on the knowledge they had acquired from these classes. The participants were required to keep science journals in which they recorded their activities. The documentation of the workshops and the classroom activities lead to the creation of a newsletter entitled "City Science News" and the Curriculum guides. In an effort aimed at encouraging participants to make use of resources that are readily available to them, participants were taken to city parks and local museums. In so doing participants learned ways that could make maximum use of these resources.

Excerpt 12 [Hood College]

Project Features:
Describes project goals

The project’s goals are to develop, implement, and evaluate a model for providing needed teacher enhancement activities to schools having maintained exemplary science programs over an extended period of time. The project objectives are to:

1. Identify indicators that measure the overall health and extent of institutionalization of exemplary science programs and apply the identified indicators to a study of the exemplar Frederick County SCIS program;
2. Develop and implement needed teacher enhancement activities within the Frederick County Public Schools based upon findings from the study; and
3. Use the indicators on a continuing basis to evaluate the impact of these enhancement activities and to allow the school system to continuously monitor its future teacher enhancement needs.

Excerpt 13 [Anonymous 1]

Project Features:
Describes project goals

Program A focuses on developing school grounds across the state for teaching experiential science and other subjects. Program A is designed to help schools enhance their grounds as learning environments and as wildlife habitats and to empower teachers to give their students creative learning experiences by incorporating the outdoors into their curriculum. The project’s primary goals are to:

• increase the use of the environment in the teaching of all subjects;
• positively impact attitudes of teachers and students toward living things;
• develop site-based leadership;
• enhance the value of school grounds as a learning resource through native plantings and the creation of wildlife habitats.

Project Features

Program A is a two-year teacher enhancement program, with the bulk of its in-service education for a participating school occurring during the program’s first year. In that first year, each school receives an intensive series of eight on-site professional development sessions. These workshops are spread throughout the academic year with participating schools choosing whether sessions occur on teacher workdays or in the afternoons following school. The topics for the eight sessions are as follows:

1. The Initial Site Visit
2. Using the School Grounds as a Learning Environment
3. Attracting Butterflies and Hummingbirds
4. Attracting Birds to Your School Grounds
5. Bringing the Outdoors Indoors
6. Creating Wetlands on Your School Grounds
7. State Native Wildflowers
8. Creating Site Specific Activities

In the summer following the program’s first year, a representative from each of the participating schools, usually the lead teacher, attends a week-long summer field institute. The institute is designed to provide: additional content information and hands-on experiences; opportunities to share ideas and experiences with teachers from across the State; and leadership training for the lead teachers to assist them as they work to continue the program within their own schools.

During the program’s second year, all participants are to receive a minimum of 6 additional hours of inservice education. This follow-up professional development includes a required 3-hour session, conducted by a Museum staff member, and another in-service opportunity of at least 3 hours, which is chosen by the school staff from a variety of offerings.

Project Participants, Audiences & Other Stakeholders:
Identifies participating schools and school contextual information

Description of Schools

A total of 24 schools was selected to participate in each year of the project’s funding period. Schools interested in participating were asked to submit an application to the Museum; they were selected for inclusion in the project on several criteria, including evidence of: commitment of their leadership team and experiential science program, or an established science lab program. To maximize the regional impact of the program 16 of the 24 schools selected each year were to be located in the eastern portion of the State. During the 1996-97 school year, 23 schools completed the training. Geographically schools were located throughout the state, with the majority being concentrated from the piedmont to the coast.

Project Participants, Audiences & Other Stakeholders

Project Features:
Describes participant demographics

Description of Participants

Project Participants, Audiences & Other Stakeholders

Project Context:
Describes teaching assignments of participants

In addition to basic demographic information, the Pre-Workshop Questionnaire asked participants about their own teaching situations, in terms of grade levels taught, number of science lessons taught each week and the length of a typical science lesson. Participants’ responses to these questions are found in Table 2. For both Cohorts, the typical participant teaches in grades K-5, in a self-contained setting, where there are 3-5 science lessons per week.

**Percentages will add to more than 100 since some participants taught at more than one grade level

Excerpt 14 [Educational Cooperative Service Unit, MN]

Project Features:
Describes project goals

PROJECT GOALS

1. To show teachers how computational science can greatly enhance the teaching of mathematics and science in the high school classroom.
2. To develop a cadre of teachers who know what computational science is, understand its relevance in the contemporary work place, and can use some of the computational science techniques in their classrooms to teach existing curriculum.
3. To develop a cadre of lead teachers, in which women and minorities are well-represented, who will assume leadership roles with their peers on computational science topics and techniques.
4. To develop a collection of discipline-based teaching activities which can be used by other teachers.
5. To include presentations in the workshop on strategies for making activities attractive to female and minority students, and to be sure all presenters are aware of this aspect of workshop emphasis.
6. To establish a network of lead teachers who use Internet to enrich their various mathematics and science teaching activities and to communicate with each other.

Excerpt 15 [Rocky Mountain Teacher Education Collaborative]

Project Features:
Describes cross-institutional project leadership structure; Describes project goals

The Rocky Mountain Teacher Education Collaborative (RMTEC), sponsored by a grant from the National Science Foundation, represents the collaborative efforts of faculty and staff of three state institutions of higher education and several community colleges and local school districts. The three primary institutions, Colorado State University, Metropolitan State College of Denver, and the University of Northern Colorado, have each established committees (called teams) composed of individuals from all entities involved, which serve under the direction of the principal investigators on each campus respectively. Each team works individually, as part of a cluster of teams from its parent institution, and collaborative-wide to meet the goals of RMTEC. These goals are to develop collaboration between primary institutions, community colleges and local school districts; to reform the ways in which mathematics and science pre-service teachers are prepared for careers in teaching with emphasis upon restructuring, reforming and/or developing innovative curricula and instructional methods for teaching education, mathematics and science; and to recruit and retain women and ethnic minorities in teaching careers in the fields of mathematics and science. Reform efforts are directed toward student-centered, experiential, inquiry-based curricula and instruction, developed with sensitivity to the educational needs of women and students of color.

Excerpt 16 [Anonymous 4]

Project Participants, Audiences & Other Stakeholders
Describes participant selection

The project was designed for reasonably well-prepared teachers. The program was announced in Newsletter A which is mailed to math and science teachers statewide and in Newsletter B. Criteria for participant selection were:

• a minimum of 18 units of biological science.
• a G.P.A of 3.0 in biology courses.
• evidence that they use or want to use more hands-on lab activities.
• Evidence that they implement new materials and methods in their teaching.
• Evidence of sharing materials and information with other teachers.
• indications of leadership qualities.

The members of the selection committee were:
Dr. A, Molecular and Cellular Biology
Dr. B, Teaching and Teacher Education
Dr. C, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Dr. D, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Dr. E, Wildlife and Fisheries
Dr. F, Biochemistry (committee head)
Ms. G, Unified School District
Dr. H, Biochemistry

Describes participant characteristics

Participant Information
The following two tables provide a summary of information on program participants and their schools. Additional participant information is provided in Appendix A.

*Community College instructors and teachers not currently employed (did not receive stipends).

Project Context:
Describes characteristics of participating schools

Excerpt 17 [The Nebraska Economics Fellows Institute]

Project Participants, Audiences & Other Stakeholders
Describes attrition

Although 35 teachers were initially chosen to participate in the program, only 32 completed the three-year program. Two teachers dropped out the first year because they lacked the time to complete the three years of coursework. A third teacher left the Institute in the second year because of health reasons. This attrition was not unusual and relatively low (8.6%) for a demanding three-year program. As will be noted in the next section, the general satisfaction of the participants with the program probably kept the attrition rate low.

Describes participant characteristics

This evaluation is based on data collected from the 32 teachers who completed the program. Table 1.2 presents the characteristics of the 32 teachers.

¹Numbers sum to more than 32 because many teachers have multiple teaching assignments.
²Numbers sum to more than 32 because most teachers teach across several grades.