Math Science Partnership Project
Math Science Partnership Project: PD3
A major development for PCMI in 2003 was the receipt of a three-year
Math Science Partnership Initiative grant from the National Science
Foundation. Totaling some $5.5 million over three years, the funding
provides for an expanded Secondary School Teachers Program in the
summer and for the design and implementation of a comprehensive in-year
program of teacher professional development in three school districts
in the United States: Cincinnati (Ohio), McAllen (Texas), and Seattle
(Washington). The in-year program is known as PD3, which stands for
"PCMI and Districts Partner to Design Professional Development." In
each district, the PCMI three-fold model of 1) continuing to do
mathematics, 2) analyzing practice, and 3) becoming a resources to
one's peers, will be tailored and implemented as the official
professional development program for math teachers in selected middle
and high schools in each district. Teachers and administrators from
each of the three school districts will participate fully in designing
professional development offerings that, based PCMI's three-fold model,
will be unique to the needs of their own teachers and curriculum.
PCMI's was the only Institute Prototype award given in the Math Science
Partnership program's 2003 cohort of grants.
2003/4 Annual Report
During the first year of PCMI's National Science Foundation Mathematics
Science Partnership grant, teachers for the project were recruited from
three sites: Cincinnati, OH; McAllen, TX; and Seattle, WA.
The Seattle site project has three high schools with approximately 25
mathematics teachers participating. The site is directed by James King,
assisted by Lani Horn, from the University of Washington; Rosalind
Wise, Seattle Public School curriculum coordinator; and Art Mabbott,
who is the project liaison to the Seattle Public Schools.
The McAllen site includes all of the district's middle and high school
teachers, approximately 60 in all, and is directed by Garland
Linkenhoger, assisted by Cindy Mitchell, curriculum coordinators for
the McAllen school district, and Miguel Paredes from Texas Pan American
University. Also involved with the McAllen site is Max Warshauer, Texas
State University, San Marcos.
The Cincinnati site involves approximately
25 teachers from three high schools and is directed by Kimya Moyo,
curriculum coordinator from the Cincinnati Public Schools; David Minda
and Charles Groetsch from the University of Cincinnati.
During the Spring of 2004, student achievement and teacher data were
collected from the sites. The results will be processed by the
project's evaluation team from Michigan State University and shared
with the schools and teachers as a first step in using data to make
decisions about what and how they teach and to help focus project
efforts to build the capacity of teachers to use data to improve
instruction. The leadership team in conjunction with the evaluators
also established a set of indicators for identifying potential teacher
leaders.
The goals for PD3
are as follows: 1) The PCMI model becomes a template for professional
development in the district; 2) Teachers co-design and implement
professional development, and interact with University faculty and
School and District leadership to promote a school culture that values
mathematics and teaching; and 3) Teachers observe and support each
other's teaching.
Teachers from the three sites were full participants in the PCMI High
School Teachers Program of the Summer Session 2004 and also worked as a group to make plans and a timeline for implementing PD3
goals. Teacher evaluations were extremely positive about their summer
experience and they have been using many of the activities from the
summer program in their work with colleagues in their district and
schools. These teachers will form an initial pool of leaders identified
in the proposal as key elements in helping others in their schools work
to improve their practice.
Two meetings of the PD3
leadership team were held in the 2003-2004 year; one in McAllen TX and
the second in Cincinnati. Part of each meeting was spent getting to
know something about the schools at that site. Each site has
incorporated the work of the teachers who attended PCMI and developed a
set of activities addressing the particular needs of the district and
aligned with the project goals. For example, Seattle has established a
video club through which teachers analyze teaching, McAllen has a
cohort of teachers taking a university program to strengthen their
content knowledge, and are engaged in rethinking their curriculum
focus. Cincinnati is holding biweekly meetings with project teachers
designed around areas of need and beginning with a lesson study
initiative.
Issues that the project faces as it moves forward are the following:
involving in meaningful ways all of the teachers in each of the project
schools; coping with the instability of schools, teachers,
administrations, and school foci as well as student mobility; working
within competing demands on teachers' time and other school improvement
initiatives, the amount of time needed for the data collection
instruments and the need to make the results available and meaningful
for the teachers; finding ways to support teachers as leaders; and
identifying measures to gauge their leadership and impact on colleagues
and the mathematics programs in the schools.
PD3 project space at MSPnet http://iaspc.mspnet.org/index.cfm/
PD3 project space at Math Forum http://www.mathforum.org/pcmi/msp/
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