Annual Report Overviews

A Systemic Partnership Annual Overview

Rachel E. Wood and John W. Collette
November 15, 1999

OVERVIEW

The objective of the Delaware LSCI is to build capacity at the district and school level to ensure that all children in Grades K-8 have the opportunity to obtain the skills and knowledge needed to meet the expectations of the Delaware Science Standards and performance Indicators. The LSCI is the responsibility of The Delaware Science Coalition, a coalition of fourteen school districts in partnership with the Delaware Department of Education and the Delaware Foundation for Science and Mathematics Education.

MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

GOAL 1: Provide exemplary professional development to all teachers.

Elementary

• The LSCI now is reaching almost 2500 teachers, representing > 85% of the K-6 public school teachers in the state. As of June 30, 1999, 55% of these teachers have taken training in two or more science curricular modules; 20 % in one module and 25% had not yet started training. Our goal continues to be to have at least 90% of all teachers trained in three modules.
• The LSCI provided twelve to twenty four hours of professional development in specific science modules to 1387 teachers in the period from 7/1/98 through 6/30/99. This group included a significant number of new teachers in Grades K-3, resulting from state legislation mandating smaller classes in these grades.

Middle School

As reported last year, a middle school program was initiated to expand the science program to Grades 7 and 8 with strong encouragement and support from all fourteen school districts in the Coalition.

• The Middle School Leadership team defined a grade 6-8 topical pathway aligned with the Delaware Performance Indicators and established a four year implementation plan to introduce inquiry-based curriculum units and provide professional development to all 6-8 teachers.
• Because of the limited availability of exemplary middle school science material, the first three curriculum units piloted last year were customized inquiry-based modules developed internally. These units (Force and Motion, Delaware Watersheds and Weather) were developed under the leadership of the PI with the assistance of faculty from the University of Delaware and Delaware State University and the support of two master high school teachers on loan to the LSCI. Forty-one lead teachers took graduate level professional development courses in these three units last year.
• In 1999, three additional units were piloted based on units now commercially available from FOSS and STC. Ninety-three middle school teachers took graduate courses in summer science workshops in the six curricular units. As a result more than one-third of the middle schoolteachers in the state are now engaged in the program. Student and teacher response to these units has been very positive.

GOAL 2: Nurture a network of teachers to lead and sustain the reform

• All Coalition Science Specialists took two graduate level courses in applied science assessment and evaluation given by the PI in collaboration with Dr. Mary Ellen Harmon of Boston College. All will take one additional course in December. Through these courses, the Specialists developed summative assessments for two science units/grade in the K-5 curriculum, learned to score student work using the double-digit scoring rubrics they established, and analyzed student work to identify common errors and misconceptions.
• The Coalition Science Specialists continue to take increased responsibilities for project implementation. They now meet weekly to coordinate professional development training across the LSCI, and to design and lead the professional development program for Lead Teachers.

GOAL 3: Support an organizational culture, which embeds science as an integral part of the elementary curriculum and legitimates informed curricular decisions

• The Science Resource Center has expanded to serve additional schools and teachers. It now serves 129 schools, stocks over 3500 science modules in K-6 and 50 science modules for grades 7/8. Selected tradebooks are included in many science modules.
• Twenty-five middle schools in the Coalition took part in the 1999 TIMSS-R test to benchmark student performance in science and mathematics at grade eight. The Coalition will now be part of a regional consortium that will be using the data from this test to help guide ongoing improvements in student achievement.

GOAL 4: Build a process to ensure that school, district and state policies are supportive of systemic reform.

• The LSCI in partnership with The Delaware Foundation for Science and Mathematics Education and the University of Delaware cosponsored a Public Policy Forum on Achieving Excellence and Equity in Mathematics and Science Education. Over 200 people (educators, administrators, parents, business representatives and legislators) attended to learn about TIMSS from Professor Wm. Schmidt and Dr. P Forgione and from representatives of the Chicago based First in World Consortium. Special videos were prepared to show the progress being made in Delaware in elementary science education and secondary mathematics education.
• All districts have active outreach and communication programs. These include reports by Science Specialists to the superintendent and staff; presentations to principals and PTA's; and parents" nights at which science is highlighted. The science program has also benefited from positive publicity in numerous local newspapers and the major state-wide newspaper.

GOAL 5: Focus community stakeholders to support systemic science reform

Informal science organizations such as The Delaware Nature Center, The Delaware Aquatic Center, The Brandywine Zoo coordinate their activities and field trips to align with specific science units in the curriculum. Others such as the Environmental

Control Dept(DENREC) are assisting in developing middle school curriculum on Delaware Watersheds.

LESSONS LEARNED

Developing a Comprehensive Science Assessment System that is user friendly and will help teachers better understand what their students are learning and not learning has been a powerful learning opportunity for both Coalition leadership and participating teachers.

• Learning to design effective assessments and using them to assess student performance is one of the best ways of engaging teachers in examining their own teaching practices.
• A very effective way of engaging secondary teachers in science reform and in helping them understanding the changes that are occurring in elementary science education is to allow them to see and discuss assessments of elementary student work and assessments.
• A double-digit rubric system, in which the second digit designates specific types of errors or misconceptions, is much more useful at informing teachers and guiding changes in classroom practice than the standard single digit rubric
• A higher rate of inter-rater reliability can be achieved if elementary teachers construct scoring criteria in collaboration with content experts.

A Systemic Partnership for Improving the Teaching and Learning of Science for All Students

Rachel E. Wood and John W. Collette
November 15, 1999

STATE AND DISTRICT POLICIES

The state environment for science reform turned significantly less favorable as the public began to face the reality that student accountability would become high stakes next year and many students could be retained for failing reading or mathematics. The situation was confused by a highly contentious legislative debate on teacher accountability. Because reading will be a gateway for promotion from grades 3 and mathematics from grade 8, there is growing pressure in many schools to reduce the time spent on science. At the time of this writing, accountability legislation is on hold and may be postponed for several years.

The failure of state leadership to inform and build a common vision of educational excellence in the broader statewide community has the potential of undermining progress to date. In this environment, science has continued to be viewed favorably both because of the positive impact it has on students and the systemic approach to reform taken by the LSCI. We expect the elementary science program to proceed at full speed, given the strong grassroots support for the program and the continued progress being made by teachers in integrating reading, writing and mathematics with science

To help this situation, Coalition leadership will be working proactively to communicate the progress being made in science to a wider audience and to promote the urgent need for K-16 systemic reform that would build on the progress in K-8.

In spite of the state environment, district support for the science program has grown stronger in the last year as the benefits from collaboration become more apparent. The rate of teacher training has increased significantly and new districts have requested to join the coalition to participate in the middle school expansion. We have expanded our outreach to high schools to inform teachers and administrators of the significant changes occurring in the elementary and middle school curriculum.

PROJECT TRAINING/DEVELOPMENT

All elementary science teachers will take 150 hours of professional development in the course of this project. The PD is designed to help them become conversant with exemplary instructional materials, to deepen their content knowledge, and their understanding of effective instruction and assessment that promotes student learning.

Teacher training continued at rapid pace last year with 1383 teachers taking professional development in specific science curricular units. (see table below). The number of professional development courses offered and the number of teachers participating continued at a much higher level than originally forecast and is expected to stay high. This is due to a number of factors including an influx of new teachers in Grades K-3 resulting from legislation reducing class size in these grades; the shift by some districts to move from three units/year to four in some grades; and an increase in the number of teachers changing grades or moving to other schools.

As of June 30, 1999, 55 % of the teachers have taken professional development in two or more modules. In a number of the districts that began the program in 1995, the majority of teachers are "trained" as defined by completing three modules. A growing number of teachers throughout the Coalition have continued their training to complete four, five or six units; in addition, more districts are moving to using four modules in certain school years.