The Math and Science Partnership of Southwest Pennsylvania is a strong
and integrated collaboration linking broadly distributed suburban and
rural school districts with an assemblage of small to medium sized colleges
and universities in the region. Together they are committed to improving
the understanding and knowledge breadth of Mathematics and Science for
all students in K-16. The awardee and organizing principle for this Partnership
is the Allegheny Intermediate Unit (AIU) a publicly funded service agency
intermediary between local school districts and the State Department of
Education. At the onset, the Partnership will include AIU and three other
Intermediate Units (collectively encompassing 40 school districts) with
four local institutions of higher education (Carlow College, Chatham College,
Robert Morris University, and Saint Vincent College). In Years 4 and
5, the project will broaden by adding12 school districts and replicate
the intervention efforts in two more Intermediate Units; in these latter
two years a yet unselected college in the vicinity of these new K-12 additions
will also be included. There are three other involved partners 1) the
Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, a critical participant for development
of a Science Curriculum Framework as a counterpart to the existing Mathematics
Curriculum Framework for the State of Pennsylvania, 2) the Carnegie Science
Center, offering a staff member to serve as Science Project Director for
the Partnership and organizing/hosting regular large meetings planned
for partnership participants, and 3) the Rand Corporation, serving as
an outside evaluator of the Partnership's activities. Over five years
this award will serve 134,000 K-12 students and more than 8,500 higher
education students, including pre-service teachers. Systems of different
professional development opportunities will be offered and encouraged
for in-service teachers and administrators.
The emphasis of this partnership
is on improving the quality of the Math and Science Educator workforce.
Working in concert, district and college level leadership cadres will
develop a Science Curriculum Framework to be disseminated to schools along
with an already developed Mathematics Curriculum Framework. For both
curricula the intent is to present challenging courses, which focus on
6-8 big ideas for each grade, integrated in a coherent curriculum. In
addition, data analysis tools and assistance will be provided to promote
1) annual planning tailored to a particular school district's needs and
2) tracking of developmental progress from initiation through broad implementation
and institutionalization of the Partnership's intervention strategies
to effect educational cultural change.
Disaggregated, district-specific
data analysis for annual assessment and intervention planning, solidly
developed benchmarking and measures of outcomes, and a planned outside
evaluation by the Rand Corporation suggest that this partnership will
make a strong contribution to the MSP literature. Scalability and replication
in broader contexts will be tested with the addition of school districts
and two more Intermediate Units in Years 4 and 5. This project may well
prove to be an effective model for other states with educational service
units and, more generally, for regions with broadly distributed school
districts and local small to medium sized institutions of higher education.
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