 college of education | spring 2006 | Back to Contents | |
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Experimenting with
Science & Mathematics Education When it was first announced in the summer of 2003, Promoting Rigorous Outcomes in Mathematics and Science Education (prom/se) was a remarkable moment for MSU and its involvement in schools and educational reform. The National Science Foundation had awarded MSU and five consortia of school districts in Michigan and Ohio a $35 million grant to fund the research and development initiative. With that money, the project would seek to do nothing less than dramatically improve k–12 math and science teaching and learning and push U.S. students up to international standards. Prom/se was audacious in its ambitions and sprawling in its scale, cutting a swath through part of middle America and involving teachers and students from districts urban to rural, rich and poor. There was simply nothing quite like it. Nearly three years later and the project remains one of the most ambitious and closely watched developments in the nation’s effort to remake American k–12 education for the new realities of a hypercompetitive world.
The challenges of improving American k–12 math and science are daunting and no one knows that better than University Distinguished Professor William Schmidt, who in the 1990s was the national research director of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). The TIMSS findings were sobering. Although American fourth-graders scored near the top in science—outperformed only by South Korea and Japan—and slightly above the international average in math, TIMSS chronicled a precipitous decline in achievement through middle and high school. In the eighth grade, U.S. students’ scores dipped below the international average in both disciplines. It was even worse by the end of high school: American seniors could outperform only two nations—Cyprus and South Africa—in math, and in physics they finished at the bottom, outscored by every other country in that portion of the study. “Since the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, international studies have consistently found that U.S. students in math and science lag behind those in many countries,” said Schmidt, who now serves as the co-principal investigator of prom/se. “In order for American students to compete in the world economy, we have to ensure that they receive the best education possible and that includes a strong background in mathematics and science. Our ultimate goal is to improve teaching and achievement for all students.” In an effort to achieve that goal, prom/se has taken what is a rather unique approach. The method is not unlike that which a doctor might use. First you examine the patient, run some tests, and then determine what, if anything, is wrong. For University Distinguished Professor Joan Ferrini-Mundy, who is co-principal investigator and also serves as associate dean of the College of Natural Science, this is the only sensible approach. Otherwise, the alternative is to launch into things without knowing where the problems exist. As a result, the prom/se staff has amassed piles of data on students and teachers in the project. The team has tested nearly 200,000 students and surveyed teachers about their classroom practices. Staffers have also worked with school districts to collect data about k–12 mathematics and science curricula, student learning, teacher professional development, teacher preparedness, and parents’ attitudes about mathematics and science education.
“Our goal is that at every level (partner, district, building, associate, and teacher) relevant data be used as a basis to enact coherent curriculum and instruction in mathematics and science so that all students learn to high standards,” Ferrini-Mundy said. Susan Tave Zelman, superintendent of the Ohio Department of Education, added: “Ohio schools that are invited to be part of prom/se acquire powerful data tools to assess their curricula, student learning, teacher preparedness, and public attitudes. Participation in prom/se gives Ohio schools effective tools for improving student learning of mathematics and science.” In 2005 alone, more than 1,000 mathematics and science teachers attended prom/se weeklong professional development academies. The focus of the sessions is not only to help teachers by providing them with in-depth knowledge of specific topics in math and science, but to have them serve as resources for teachers and administrators. In fact, the project now has in place a small army of teachers who serve as associates, prepared to take the lead in prom/se professional development efforts at their schools. “If teachers have a deep knowledge of mathematics, they will become more confident and comfortable, and this will help students develop their knowledge of mathematics,” said Gail Burrill, prom/se co-director of mathematics. “It’s not just teaching mathematical rules and processes, but digging underneath for a better understanding of why those rules and processes make sense.” |
Easily the most striking aspect of the project is its scale. There are plenty of large government-funded projects involving k–12 education, but it is hard to imagine one much larger than prom/se. It involves partnerships between the College of Natural Science and College of Education at MSU and five k–12 organizations: the Calhoun Intermediate School District in Calhoun County, Mich.; the Ingham Intermediate School District in Ingham County, Mich.; the St. Clair County Regional Educational Service Agency in St. Clair County, Mich.; the High Aims Consortium in the Cincinnati area; and the Smart Consortium in greater Cleveland. That may seem rather manageable. But what it actually means is that the project serves nearly 60 school districts across two states and 7,000 teachers who teach nearly 350,000 students. What’s more, some 37 percent of those students come from impoverished homes. What it all adds up to is that the project has not shied away from confronting head on the challenge of improving math and science teaching and learning. Because the project is working with data derived from a representative microcosm of the United States, the results have the potential to be applicable to researchers and policymakers nationwide. Viewed in this way, prom/se is a hugely ambitious undertaking. The project is seeking to take the insights gained from TIMSS (in an oft-quoted line, Schmidt described American math and science education as “a mile wide and an inch deep”) and apply them to the thorny problem of improving math and science education. And the project doesn’t intend to take any shortcuts. In the final stages, students will undergo another comprehensive assessment to see how much their learning has improved. It is a tough challenge, but for Ferrini-Mundy it is one that is essential for the nation and its competitiveness. “The numbers reached through prom/se are ambitious but so are our goals. Our aim,” she added simply, “is to create a powerful new approach to improving mathematics and science achievement for all students.” ---------------------- significance test 1 ρ = Marysville Public Schools
—Susan Pettit Riley -------------------- significance test 2 X = Lakeview School District The Lakeview School District in Battle Creek, Mich., is in a three-year process of transforming its principals from managers to educational leaders and PROM/SE is a part of this plan. Principals are learning to be content experts focused on teacher growth. With this goal in mind, Lakeview’s assistant superintendent for instruction asked the principals to attend the Education Development Center–based “Lenses on Learning,” a resource offered to the district through PROM/SE. Some principals were more open to the process than others, but the assistant superintendent pressed all to attend. After only one session, the principals could see new ways to discuss good mathematics instruction. As the course drew to a close, the principals were enthusiastic about the potential to improve math instruction. Lakeview’s middle school principal is now sharing what he learned in the course by holding monthly meetings with the school’s mathematics teachers. —Susan Pettit Riley ------------------- significance test 3 t = a PROM/SE forum A group of renowned scientists and science educators recently convened for “Science Education in the 21st Century: A PROM/SE Forum.” The meeting, sponsored by MSU and PROM/SE, brought together some of the brightest minds in the field to think about what K–12 science education, curriculum, and instruction should look like in the 21st century. The forum included a who’s who of science and education leaders, including Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman, astrophysicist Carl Pennypacker, former astronaut and educator George “Pinky” Nelson, MSU president Lou Anna K. Simon, as well as MSU scholars Joan Ferrini-Mundy, William Schmidt, George Leroi, Charles Anderson, Sharif Shakrani, and Douglas Estry. Science curriculum leaders from the PROM/SE K–12 partners joined the group for roundtable discussions identifying the big ideas in science that all students should master. —Susan Pettit Riley
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“The
findings from this project will contribute significantly to better
understanding what it takes to improve learning outcomes among students
studying mathematics and the sciences,” said Joyce Evans, the National
Science Foundation’s senior program director for the Mathematics and Science
Partnership Program. For her, the project’s approach to teacher professional
development and student learning has the potential of making a “unique,
lasting, and significant contribution to k–12 education nationally.”
The information has
provided prom/se a kind of bird’s eye view of how students are faring
compared to each district’s curriculum and state standards, the amount of
time spent on particular topics within the classroom, and how well that time
allocation translates into student understanding. Armed with this data,
project experts and school officials in the districts have developed
specific plans of attack, designing customized professional development for
teachers to address knowledge gaps and areas that need improvement. It is
this focus on helping teachers so they can, in turn, help their students in
those critical areas where the data show they are struggling that is at the
heart of prom/se.
For Patti
Halligan and Nancy House, elementary teachers from the Marysville Public
Schools in Michigan, the PROM/SE Summer Mathematics Academy helped them see
math through the eyes of their students. After attending the academy and
examining the methods used in their classrooms, the teachers felt that they
could no longer teach within the curriculum used in the district. Convinced
that instruction that included mathematical thinking, problem solving, and
students explaining solutions would lead to deeper understanding, they met
with their principal and district administrators to discuss implementing a
new program of instruction. Already the new approach has begun to payoff in
the classroom. Students are gaining greater understanding and making
connections among concepts and engaging in deeper conversations. The
teachers now help students solve problems, rather than simply find the
answer. They hope that this problem-solving attitude developed by their
students in second grade will be a foundation of deeper math understanding
in future grades.