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Program Description Text: The MSP program seeks to improve K-12 student achievement through a sharp focus on three inter-related issues:
- Ensuring that all students have access to, are prepared for and are encouraged to participate and succeed in challenging and advanced mathematics and science courses;
- Enhancing the quality, quantity and diversity of the K-12 mathematics and science teacher workforce; and
- Developing evidence-based outcomes that contribute to our understanding of how students effectively learn mathematics and science.
K-20 education organizations (that is, colleges and universities offering graduate and/or undergraduate programs, and K-12 schools and school districts) are critical partners in all Targeted and Institute Partnership projects. Specifically, disciplinary faculty in departments of mathematics, the sciences and/or engineering with education faculty and administrators in higher education partner organizations join administrators, teachers of mathematics and the sciences and guidance counselors in K-12 partner organizations in efforts to effect deep, lasting improvement in K-12 mathematics and science education. Furthermore, the partner organizations commit to implementing the K-20 institutional change necessary to sustain Partnerships' successes in the long-term; this includes the continued participation of mathematics, science and engineering faculty in work that clearly results in improved K-12 student and teacher learning.
Other partners and partner organizations are also involved in Partnership projects, and may include business and industry, state education agencies, district-level educational support centers, parents and families, science centers and museums, disciplinary and professional societies, research laboratories, private foundations and other public and private organizations with interests in K-12 mathematics and science education. The participation of mathematicians, scientists and/or engineers from such organizations is encouraged. Partnerships are expected to collaborate with their state education agency(ies), as appropriate, to ensure that successful Partnership activities may be replicated throughout the state(s).
Mathematicians, scientists and engineers, particularly those who are faculty in higher education partner organizations, play substantial roles in Partnership projects. Their substantial intellectual engagement in these projects is one of the attributes that distinguishes the MSP program from other programs seeking to improve K-12 student outcomes in mathematics and science.
All Targeted and Institute Partnerships focus on (a) improving K-12 student achievement and other outcomes in mathematics and/or the sciences, and (b) developing an accomplished teacher workforce capable of engaging all students. All projects incorporate a depth and quality of creative, strategic actions that extend beyond commonplace approaches to improve K-12 mathematics and science education.
Through the MSP Research, Evaluation and Technical Assistance (MSP-RETA) component, the capacity of MSP-funded Partnerships to achieve their goals and contribute to the development and dissemination of the knowledge base necessary to achieve sustained educational reform is enhanced.
All MSP-funded projects contribute to the MSP Learning Network, a network of researchers and practitioners studying, documenting and evaluating promising strategies to improve K-12 student achievement in mathematics and science. MSP projects are therefore designed to make evidence-based contributions to the learning and teaching knowledge base. The work of the MSP Learning Network fosters greater national collaboration and informs our understanding of how students effectively learn mathematics and science such that successful approaches can be broadly disseminated and emulated in educational practice.
KEY FEATURES
Each MSP Targeted and Institute Partnership must incorporate ALL of the five following Key Features, although the manifestation of these Key Features may differ between Targeted and Institute Partnerships. Each MSP-RETA project must identify the Key Features to be addressed and describe how its work contributes to the underlying knowledge base for those features.
Partnership-Driven - Targeted and Institute projects partner disciplinary faculty in mathematics, the sciences and/or engineering, education faculty and administrators in higher education with administrators, teachers and guidance counselors in participating K-12 core partner organizations. These Partnerships draw upon the disciplinary expertise of faculty in mathematics, the sciences and/or engineering, undergraduate students (including pre-service), graduate students, and postdoctoral candidates in the higher education core partner organizations, and link these individuals with in-service teachers, administrators and guidance counselors in K-12 core partner organizations. Scientists, mathematicians, engineers and individuals from other core and supporting partner organizations may also play significant roles in project activities. Core partners are deeply engaged in the effort at both the institutional and individual levels, and share goals, responsibilities and accountability for the project.
Teacher Quality, Quantity and Diversity - Partnerships enhance and sustain the quality, quantity and diversity of K-12 teachers of mathematics and/or the sciences. Drawing upon the expertise of scientists, mathematicians and/or engineers in partner organizations, pre-service students and in-service K-12 teachers are engaged in the development of strong mathematics and/or science content knowledge and related pedagogical methods and skills, including the effective use of technology in the teaching of mathematics and/or the sciences. These activities support the challenging courses and curricula implemented in the K-12 core partner organizations. Partnerships also develop and apply innovative strategies for: increasing the diversity of the K-12 teacher workforce; recruiting qualified individuals to the teaching profession; influencing the teacher certification process; providing for the effective induction of new teachers; establishing policies and procedures that appropriately impact teacher qualification requirements and placement; and/or increasing teacher retention rates. Projects ensure that K-20 educators develop the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively match local and state standards with challenging courses and curricula, instructional strategies, learning technologies and assessments.
Challenging Courses and Curricula - Partnerships ensure that K-12 students are prepared for, have access to and are encouraged to participate and succeed in challenging mathematics and/or science courses and curricula. Challenging coursework enables all students to develop a deeper understanding of mathematics and/or the sciences. Innovative approaches integrate a mastery of fundamentals with the more sophisticated conceptual understandings essential to improve student achievement in mathematics and the sciences, drawing – where appropriate – upon computer-communications technology and contemporary research on the science of learning to enhance student and teacher access and performance. Challenging courses and curricula are aligned with State mathematics and science student academic achievement standards, resulting in a greater number of students participating and succeeding in advanced courses. Projects ensure that K-12 students develop sufficient depth and breadth of content knowledge, skills and ways of thinking to allow them to apply the mathematics and/or science knowledge and skills acquired throughout life.
Evidence-Based Design and Outcomes - Project design is informed by current research and studies on learning and teaching. Project outcomes make evidence-based contributions to the learning and teaching knowledge base, so that research findings and successful evidence-based strategies can be broadly disseminated to improve educational practice. Projects also link assessment (classroom, local and state) and accountability measures. Collected data include both student and teacher indicators in mathematics and/or the sciences; and are disaggregated by race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender and disability. Indicators that measure the effectiveness of the Partnership; the impact of the contributions made by faculty in the sciences, mathematics and/or engineering; the effect of new institutional policies and practices; and other important factors are developed, collected and analyzed to inform the continuous refinement of the project.
Institutional Change and Sustainability - To ensure project sustainability, K-20 core partner organizations redirect resources and design and implement new policies and practices to result in well-documented, inclusive and coordinated institutional change at both the college/university and the local school district level. Higher education core partners reward faculty in mathematics, the sciences and/or engineering for strengthening their own teaching practices and for their work in K-20 mathematics and science education, including K-12 teacher preparation and professional development. K-12 core partner organizations create and sustain an environment that values an evidence-based approach and that recognizes and rewards significant contributions to improved mathematics and science learning and teaching. Other core partners commit to engaging mathematicians, scientists and/or engineers and other individuals in activities that strengthen their roles in K-12 mathematics and science education for the long-term.
TARGETED PARTNERSHIPS
Targeted Partnerships emphasize student achievement gains at the secondary (i.e., middle and high school) grade levels, either within a more specific grade range and/or with a specific disciplinary focus in mathematics and/or the sciences. Targeted proposals describe action plans for the intended project within the context of other mathematics and/or science efforts of the partners. For example, if a proposed Partnership project seeks to improve student achievement in grades 6-8, the proposal must articulate how the project is part of a clear comprehensive plan that addresses the overall improvement of K-12 mathematics/science education, detailing student achievement in grades K-5 and student participation rates in advanced courses in grades 9-12 in core partner schools/districts. Baseline student data relevant to student performance in grades 6-8 place the proposed work in its appropriate context. Furthermore, in addition to the proposed work targeting grades 6-8, the proposal narrative would also describe such other relevant efforts as mathematics/science teacher preparation and professional development focused on grades K-5 and 9-12, and other contributions intended to improve K-12 student outcomes.
Funding requests must correlate directly with the scale and complexity of the proposed project, including the numbers of preservice students and in-service teachers directly engaged in the proposed work and the numbers of K-12 students thus impacted.
INSTITUTE PARTNERSHIPS: TEACHER INSTITUTES FOR THE 21st CENTURY
Approximately fifty years ago, the National Science Foundation created its Summer Institute Program “in recognition of the important role of teachers in developing our scientific . . . [workforce] potential” (Krieghbaum & Rawson, 1969, p. 9). The Institutes, which began in 1954 and continued for nearly twenty years, stressed subject-matter competence for science and mathematics teachers. The significance of the original NSF Institutes cannot be overestimated. Dr. James Bryant Conant, in his 1963 book on The Education of American Teachers (quoted in Krieghbaum & Rawson, 1969, p. 307), wrote: “The use of [NSF] summer institutes for bringing teachers up to date in a subject-matter field has been perhaps the single most important improvement in recent years in the training of secondary school teachers.” The original NSF Institutes are widely acknowledged as having been integral to the development of much of the Nation’s human infrastructure and leadership capacity in K-12 mathematics and science education in recent decades.
A successful proposal for a new Institute Partnership will reflect the enthusiasm and disciplinary spirit of the original NSF Institutes, while responding to 21st Century needs for accomplished teachers who are intellectual leaders and master teachers in K-12 mathematics and science. Graduates of Institutes will be school- and district-based intellectual leaders and accomplished practitioners in their disciplines. They are the mathematics/science specialists in grades K-5 and the curricular leaders of mathematics and the sciences in the secondary grades. Their expertise lies in the intellectual substance of school mathematics (Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences, 2001)and science and in the special knowledge needed for their teaching.
Institute participants will be experienced classroom teachers who wish to renew their interest in and enthusiasm for their discipline, deepen their knowledge of the subjects they teach and build leadership skills. They will return to their classrooms and schools with an expanded disciplinary, pedagogical and leadership repertoire, able to analyze and continually refine their practice of teaching. They will be catalysts for the reform of mathematics and science education programs in their schools and will contribute to the development of challenging or advanced courses. As instructional leaders, master teachers and mentors, they will become resources for their peers and their profession. Through their involvement in policy and decision-making, they will work with their peers and key administrators on behalf of improved mathematics and science education in their school and districts.
An Institute Partnership is expected to immerse teachers for a multi-year program of rigorous and appropriate courses and experiences that provide coherent study within a particular discipline(s). In the Institute, teachers will focus on the intellectual substance of the subject they teach and the special knowledge needed for its teaching, interacting with other professionals who teach and do research in their field of expertise. Teachers broaden, deepen and/or update their disciplinary knowledge and, as a result, emerge from the experience with increased confidence, becoming more effective practitioners. They should no longer see themselves as isolated individuals but rather as members of a professional community, linked with others devoted to learning and practice. Through the Partnerships, professional communities grow among K-12 teachers and college/university faculty and researchers in mathematics, the sciences, engineering and education; and understanding, communications and rapport are significantly improved.
Although proposals will describe varying models of Institute Partnerships, each Institute is expected to have its own compelling sense of identity and purpose and be informed by research on how to develop in teachers a deep understanding of mathematics and/or the sciences that allows them to grow individually as intellectual leaders and become masters in their profession. Each Institute Partnership should recognize that, to develop as intellectual leaders, teachers need multiple, coordinated experiences of sufficient duration to help them build the critical capital needed.
A proposal must articulate the process for recruitment and selection of participants and delineate a vision of the attributes to be developed in those who are selected, together with a clear plan for doing so. The curriculum for teacher participants must be coherent and multi-year in duration. Within this requirement, Institute Partnerships may differ in their intensity (e.g., numbers of weeks) and venues (e.g., residential, commuter, distance-learning or blends thereof; national or regional/local geographic reach). A local, commuter institute might, for example, be designed with a content focus on the physical sciences for emerging middle school teacher leaders, while a national geometry leadership institute for high school teachers of mathematics might be residential in nature.
Each Institute is expected to have a content focus that, in addition to building depth within one or more disciplines or sub-disciplines in mathematics or the sciences, also includes opportunities for participants to (a) explore newer or cross-disciplinary themes at the research frontiers of mathematics, the sciences and/or engineering; and (b) reflect on strategies by which these themes may revitalize their classes, contribute to the development of more challenging curricula, and cultivate student enthusiasm and interest in science broadly writ. Each Institute curriculum is also expected to include leadership development, as well as a component that assists participants in the implementation of contemporary research findings on effective classroom practice and the science of learning. While decisions about the selection of participants and about program and curricular design may vary, all such decisions will be based on relevant evidence or research findings or on conceptual rationales, and these are to be detailed in the proposal.
A proposal for an Institute Partnership will define goals for preparing the school- and district-based intellectual leaders and accomplished practitioners envisioned, and will describe a project design with a focus on the five MSP key features. The proposal will describe a Partnership led by an institution of higher education that includes a department(s) in mathematics, the sciences or engineering, in collaboration with other university/college departments (e.g., education faculty), administrative units or other institutions that contribute needed expertise; K-12 districts or schools; and other stakeholders, as enumerated in the section on Eligibility Information. Instructors in the Institutes will include college/university faculty members drawn from mathematics, the sciences, engineering and education who model effective pedagogy.
A project’s core K-12 partners will be the districts from which teacher participants are to be selected, and these core organizations will be expected to show evidence of their Partnership through commitments and agreements that define (a) an alignment of the teacher leadership effort with ongoing educational improvements and reform in mathematics and science, (b) increased responsibilities for the emerging teacher leaders in their home organizations, as a result of successful completion of the Institute, and (c) administrative support, time, resources and recognition/rewards commensurate with this increased responsibility. K-12 core partners are required to grant sufficient nonclassroom time to Institute participants to carry out their responsibilities as master teachers and intellectual leaders, and to provide assurance of this commitment. To enhance the supportive culture in schools/districts, provide greater opportunity for ongoing professional communities, and contribute to institutional change and potential sustainability, schools and districts are encouraged to support small teams of Institute participants.
A proposal will describe the intended institutional change in all core partner organizations, detailing the change from current practice/policy and its importance for project sustainability. Institutions of higher education are encouraged to rethink their policies for faculty rewards to recognize an appropriate and fundamental commitment to teaching and learning. K-12 partner organizations recognize that the presence and full utilization of teacher leaders requires adjustment. They therefore implement the policy changes, restructuring, reorganization or other innovations needed to fully support and encourage teacher leadership.
Project evaluation is a major component of an Institute and must include (a) an assessment of teachers’ growth as intellectual leaders and accomplished classroom practitioners and of their effects on their school environment, (b) data on mathematics/science achievement or other outcomes for the students of participating teachers, and (c) impacts on the instructional practice of higher education faculty who are instructional leaders in the Institutes. All Institutes contribute to the broad MSP knowledge base through evaluation and/or research and through their participation in the MSP Learning Network.
RESEARCH, EVALUATION AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE (RETA) PROJECTS
A RETA proposal will be expected to directly support or inform the work of the Institute Partnerships. This solicitation invites proposals that:
- research the characteristics that define teacher intellectual leadership in K-12 mathematics and the sciences, and the factors that contribute to its development;
- develop assessments of teacher growth in (a) content knowledge, especially for teachers of grades 9-12; (b) leadership in mathematics or the sciences; and/or (c) reflective practice in mathematics and science, K-12;
- research for teachers and/or for K-12 students the attributes of challenging mathematics/science content.
A proposal should address the current state of knowledge relevant to the proposed work, including a brief review of relevant literature, and indicate the gap(s) in the current knowledge base to be addressed by the proposed work. Methodologies must be well defined, rigorous and appropriate and should result in valid, reliable findings with the potential to inform MSP work. The logic among research question, method, evidence, analysis and inference should be well articulated.
The development of assessments or other tools is to be accompanied by sufficient piloting, revision and field testing – with appropriate methodologies -- to ensure confidence in subsequent use by Institute Partnerships and others. The quality of research and scholarship expected in all MSP-funded RETA projects should be commensurate with results that are potentially publishable in appropriate and respected peer-reviewed journals.
MSP LEARNING NETWORK
All MSP-funded projects participate in the MSP Learning Network through which they are linked with other researchers and practitioners in the study and evaluation of educational innovations designed to improve student achievement in mathematics and science. The MSP Learning Network fosters greater national collaboration and contributes to the Nation's capacity to engage in and understand large-scale education innovation.
REFERENCES
Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (2001). The mathematical education of teachers. Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society.
Krieghbaum, H., & Rawson, H. (1969). An investment in knowledge: The first dozen years of the National Science Foundation's Summer Institutes programs to improve secondary school science and mathematics teaching, 1954-1965. New York: New York University Press.
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