MSP News: College and Career Ready

February 4, 2010

HIGHLIGHTS AT A GLANCE

1. LIBRARY: MSP AUTHORED PAPERS

A. "Master Graduate Teaching Fellows: An Evaluation of One Research University's Pilot Program to Improve STEM Teaching and Learning," David May, Jennifer Frank, Susan Bilek, VIP K-16, Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association, April 15, 2009.

"This paper presents an evaluation of a Master Graduate Teaching Fellows (MGTF) program at a public flagship research university. The MGTF program was part of a broader P-20 science education initiative funded through the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program. The MGTF program sought to enhance the capacity for teaching excellence in graduate students in the sciences through the provision of intensive professional development and peer mentoring. MGTFs were assigned to lower-level science courses which traditionally enroll large numbers of first-year undergraduate students and employ large numbers of graduate teaching assistants (TAs). In addition to their own professional development and teaching responsibilities, MGTFs were responsible for mentoring new TAs, providing direct support to struggling TAs, administering mid-term and end-of-term TA evaluations, running weekly TA meetings, revising lab manuals and other instructional materials for their courses, and delivering professional development workshops for TAs. Fellows received 12-months of funding at current departmental stipend levels, including tuition and fees. This paper focuses on the MGTF program during its pilot year of implementation, and its effects on participants, the courses they taught, and the fellow graduate students they mentored. The goals of the pilot were the following: to develop capacity for excellence in teaching for future STEM faculty; to provide peer support and instruction to novice STEM TAs to build increased capacity for future STEM teaching; to pilot and evaluate a TA peer mentoring system for lower-level STEM laboratory courses; and to develop and pilot a set of general professional development workshops for STEM TAs."

MSPnet Location: LIBRARY>>MSP Papers
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/20380

B. "Faculty Grassroots Leadership in Science Education Reform: Considerations for Institutional Change, Culture, and Context," Nancy Shapiro, Jennifer Frank, David May, Danielle Susskind, VIP K-16, April 2009.

This article presents four case studies of faculty grassroots leadership in a science education partnership involving multiple higher education institutions-a community college, a master's level university, and two different research universities. The main focus of the article is the interplay and role of top down leaders in positions of authority (typically administrators) versus grassroots leadership among faculty and how these two converge and interplay to create organizational change. The convergence of bottom-up and top-down leadership is affected by institutional culture and context. Cross-comparative findings from the four cases are presented, including the context for change in each case, the role of administrative leadership on each campus, factors that either facilitated or hindered the emergence of faculty grassroots leadership, and the institutionalization and sustainability of these reforms. The authors then address the broader implications of the study with respect to understanding how grassroots leadership and traditional forms of authority and leadership can compliment each other and facilitate organizational change.

MSPnet Location: LIBRARY>>MSP Papers
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/20378

C. "A Resources Interpretation of Teachers' Epistemologies of Science," David May, Sandra Honda, VIP K-16, International Conference of the Learning Sciences, Bloomington, Indiana, June 2006.

"Teachers' epistemologies of science are explored as they emerge during the course of an authentic laboratory research experience. Using a resources framework as an interpretive lens, we find that teachers develop epistemological resources for the nature of science while conducting authentic research and participating in conversations in which epistemic discourse about the nature of science is facilitated. However, stability of these epistemological resources and the contexts in which they are activated vary across individuals. Here we describe a sample of the resources along with some contexts in which they are and are not activated."

MSPnet Location: LIBRARY>>MSP Papers
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/20376

2. LIBRARY: ED CHANGE & POLICY

A. "College- and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success," Chad Aldeman, Education Sector, January 2010.

"The goal of helping all students become college- and career-ready has become a focal point of American education. ... But most high school accountability systems are lagging behind, failing to recognize college- and career-ready goals. Most high schools are rated on only two measures: graduation rates and student scores on basic skills tests given in a single year (usually ninth or 10th grade). While some states have added end-of-course or graduation exams as accountability measures, those exams have been plagued by lawsuits in some states and devalued by near-universal pass rates, after counting re-takes and alternate routes, in others." Fortunately, a growing number of states have the tools to do better. Florida, Oregon, and Ohio are among states that have built powerful new data systems that track student progress after high school into the work force and college, allowing vital information to flow between K-12, higher education, and work-force information systems. While few states have all the components in place, many have some. ... States can use these new data systems to create richer, more accurate, more multi-dimensional measures of high school success. Congress has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in state data systems in recent years--$245 million in federal 2009 stimulus funds were set aside for this purpose alone. Now, as federal lawmakers consider reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, they have the opportunity to use the dividends of that investment to solve one of the most vexing problems in K-12 policy: how to hold high schools accountable for preparing students to succeed in college and careers."

MSPnet Location: LIBRARY>>ED Change & Policy
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/20382

B. "The Nation's Report Card: Mathematics 2009 Trial Urban District Assessment," National Assessment of Educational Progress, December 2009.

"This report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) presents results from the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) in mathematics. Representative samples of between 1,800 and 4,300 fourth- and eighth-grade public school students from 18 urban districts participated in the 2009 assessment. Eleven of the districts also participated in the 2007 and 2005 assessments, and 10 participated in 2003. Student performance is reported in terms of average scale scores on the NAEP mathematics scale and the percentages of students who attained the achievement levels set by the National Assessment Governing Board. District results are compared to results for public school students in the nation, large cities nationally, and between districts and their home states. Student performance is reported by race/ethnicity and eligibility for free/reduced-price school lunch. In comparison to 2007, average mathematics scores for students in large cities increased in 2009 at both grades 4 and 8; however, only two participating districts at each grade showed gains. In comparison to 2003, scores for students in large cities were higher in 2009 at both grades 4 and 8. Increases in scores were also seen across most urban districts that participated in both years, except in Charlotte at grade 4 and in Cleveland at grades 4 and 8, where there were no significant changes. No districts showed a decline in scores at either grade."

MSPnet Location: LIBRARY>>ED Change & Policy
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/20383

C. "Projections of Education Statistics to 2018," William J. Hussar, Tabitha M. Bailey, National Center for Education Statistics, September 2009.

"This publication provides projections for key education statistics. It includes statistics on enrollment, graduates, teachers, and expenditures in elementary and secondary schools, and enrollment and earned degrees conferred expenditures of degree-granting institutions. For the Nation, the tables, figures, and text contain data on enrollment, teachers, graduates, and expenditures for the past 14 years and projections to the year 2018. For the 50 States and the District of Columbia, the tables, figures, and text contain data on projections of public elementary and secondary enrollment and public high school graduates to the year 2018. In addition, the report includes a methodology section describing models and assumptions used to develop national and state-level projections. The report includes longitudinal perspectives with actual and projected enrollments in degree-granting institutions of higher education with break-downs by race/ethnicity, gender, age, etc."

MSPnet Location: LIBRARY>>ED Change & Policy
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/20384

3. PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

A. "Adding Gravitas," Neill S. Rosenfeld, MTTI, Salute to Scholars, June 2009.

"Math can be a challenge, an art form...It's also a University cornerstone --- and a key to life itself." "Sormani studies the Ricci curvature of Riemannian manifolds..." "More comprehensible is her work as principal investigator of Lehman's new Mathematics Teacher Transformation Institute..." "...with the state reverting to a more traditional approach to algebra, geometry and trigonometry, the teachers have turned to the institute to expand their knowledge and skills."

MSPnet Location: SHOWCASE>>In The Press
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/20287

B. "CUNY Press Release," Keisha-Gaye Anderson, MTTI, CUNY Press Release, January 28, 2009.

Lehman College has launched a new initiative to help Bronx middle and high school teachers improve student performance on the New York State math Regents exams..."Many fields require a secure knowledge of basic high school mathematics," said Lehman Mathematics Professor and MTTI Principal Investigator Christina Sormani. "One of our top priorities is to increase the rate of students scoring above 85% on the first two new mathematics Regents exams: algebra and geometry."

MSPnet Location: SHOWCASE>>In The Press
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/20285

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