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SEEDS
Science Education Enhancing the Development of Skills
ESI# 9453920
Stark County, Ohio
PI Annual Progress Report
Year III Report: 1997-98
Part I. Annual Overview
SEEDS is a local systemic change initiative for science grades K-6. The
goal of the project is to improve the teaching of elementary science by
implementing a hands-on, minds-on science program integrated with other
content areas. The development of the project in 1991-92 was initially
driven by the local school business partnership. SEEDS is a collaboration
of sixteen schools districts and three private schools, the Stark County
Educational Service Center, The Education Enhancement Partnership, and
Ashland University. There are 4 rural districts, 4 suburban districts, 2
urban districts, and 6 small town districts in the project serving one
thousand teachers (90% female) and twenty-five thousand students. Although
there is demographic variation between districts, the county average is
93% white, 6% black, 1% other, and 15% disadvantaged. School districts
have developed a standards-based curriculum and utilize primarily FOSS,
STC, and Insights for instructional materials. The project webpage can be
found at http://seedsnet.stark.k12.oh.us.
The SEEDS model consists of one hundred hours of professional development
obtained through leadership training, Immersion (kit) training, content
workshops, and Action Research Seminars. After three years, 94% of the
teachers have taken training, 24% have completed one hundred hours and an
additional 30% have completed over fifty hours. Each teacher develops an
individual professional development plan to meet the one hundred hour
requirement.
The SEEDS leadership model utilizes a Program Management Team consisting of
the principal investigator and six other teachers and administrators.
There is one Lead Teacher in each of the sixteen school districts and a
district leadership team consisting of a 1:7 teacher ratio. Leadership
training and content workshops are offered by the Program Management Team,
and the Immersion training and Action Research Seminars are facilitated by
the Lead Teachers and the district leadership teams. A variety of lead
teacher models exist with about half of the districts using release time
and half using stipends for after school and summer work. Leadership
teams have developed a variety of models to provide for the management of
materials, teacher instructional assistance, and professional development
training.
Accomplishments for 1997-98. There were two days of leadership training
for the district leadership teams and five days for the Lead Teachers.
During the school year, Action Research Seminars were offered in each
school district for one semester hour credit and 461 (47%) enrolled. In
the summer there were ten- one week workshops offered by the Program
Management Team. The courses were Life Science (K-2), Earth Science (K-2),
Physical Science (K-2), Life Science (3-6), Earth Science (3-6), Physical
Science (3-6), AIMS (Activities for Integrating math and Science, Health
Integration, Technology Integration, and GLOBE (Global Learning and
Observations to Benefit the Environment). Three districts had Assessment
training and one district had Immersion training for new teachers. There
were a total of 310 teachers enrolled in the summer of 1998. All districts
have completed their initial training (Immersion) and fully implemented all
the units.
Teacher attitudes and behaviors have continually improved though most of
the change occurred during the first two years of the project. Teacher
preparedness in instructional and assessment strategies and science content
preparation have shown statistically significant growth since 1996. Student
achievement data, as measured by state proficiency tests at grades four and
six, has improved every year. The capsule ratings of teacher classroom
observations continue to rise. District measures of sustainability and
institutionalization have increased as well.
Lessons Learned. The major lessons learned this year are related to the
importance of satisfactory student achievement to the sustainability of the
program; the importance of administrative leadership to making and
sustaining change; the difficulty yet necessity of teachers understanding
their role in continuous improvement of student achievement; the importance
of developing a continuing process of mentoring new teachers once the
initial staff development is completed; the importance of creating time and
opportunities for teachers within the day to improve their teaching and
hence student achievement; and the potential for a ceiling on the amount of
change and improvement that can be made.
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