A uniquely integrated Partnership between Florida Atlantic University
and The Broward County School District, the nation's fifth largest fully-accredited
school district, proposes an Institute for Standards Mapped Graduate Education
and Mentoring for Middle Grade Math Teachers for a 5 year period. The
partnership builds upon a highly successful working relationship and existing
institutional cooperation. The dedicated team of researchers, administrators,
and teachers provides a strong foundation for the success of the new program.
The Institute creates and delivers a unique curriculum for graduate-level
middle grade teacher education as an extension of the MST (Master in Science
in Teaching) degree program of the FAU Dept. of Mathematical Sciences.
Ongoing development of the multidisciplinary curriculum by faculty and
teacher leaders is based on a new concept mapping approach and includes
technology and science integration. Major components of the program include
a sequence of special evening MST classes for teachers presented in Broward
County, intensive Summer Institutes with Student Camp, Biannual weekend
Pedagogy Conferences and Follow-Up Meetings, and an online community.
The program significantly raises the performance of participating teachers
and correspondingly the standardized test scores of their students.
Over
its duration the Institute creates a hierarchical community of teacher
leaders and
mentors including more than 50% of all middle grade math
teachers with over 20% receiving advanced graduate credit. The testing
ground is nearly 500 middle grade mathematics classrooms in Broward County.
The
intellectual merit lies in the ambitious goal of the proposal to eliminate
the many crucial gaps in content and pedagogy between the university-level
approach to a teacher's math and science preparation and the daily requirements
of a diverse standards-driven classroom. Intellectual content advancement
of the teachers is integrated and mapped to curriculum standards and their
classroom realization and driven by the content and pedagogy of the Florida
Sunshine State Standards and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
standards.
The broader impacts of a successful Institute are a viable
model for institutional change and standards mapped graduate education
for all science and math teachers: enhanced levels of teacher intellectual
achievement in classes relevant to their classrooms, teacher appreciation
of higher level multidisciplinary connections and technology enrichments,
and university faculty understanding and awareness of district standards
and pedagogy.
|