The investigators propose to conduct a 4-year assessment of the effects
that the direct and substantial involvement of STEM faculty from Institutes
of Higher Education (IHE) will have on K-12 education as part of the Math
Science Partnership (MSP) program. A central assumption underlying the
MSP program is that the involvement of STEM faculty will enhance teacher
quality and improve student achievement. The investigators will look at
eight different sites in order to capture the variation in the nature
such partnerships, making use of a range of quantitative and qualitative
methodologies. They will explore such issues as: what methods are being
used by the various MSP projects to engage STEM faculty in their activities;
how such involvement varies by type of IHE; to what extent STEM faculty
involvement contributes to increases in K-12 teacher content and pedagogical
knowledge; and to what extent it contributes to increase in student achievement.
The particular promise of this research program is that it will shed
light on the relationship between particular features of the partnerships
and actual teacher behavioirs and student learning outcomes.
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