Washington Christa McAuliffe
Professional Development Program
Program Narrative
Purpose
The purpose of the proposed professional development program is to:
· Identify scientific research on kindergarten through grade eight mathematics curriculum, instruction, and assessment
· Work with Educational Service District mathematics specialists to incorporate research based principles in professional development, and
· Provide professional development to teachers in each of the nine ESD regions throughout Washington state, as well as to provide statewide professional development through existing summer institutes and winter conferences
Goals and Objectives
The overall goal of this grant proposal is to improve student learning in mathematics through the provision of rigorous, research based professional development. Four objectives guide the implementation of this project. They include the following:
Objective 1: To review recent mathematics research and consult with nationally recognized experts to identify the current state of the art in mathematics curriculum, instruction and assessment
Objective 2: To compile the research and hold mathematics consultations with key mathematics professional development personnel in Washington State
Objective 3: To build on Washington State’s Professional Development Planning Guide (attached as Appendix A) and integrate research based findings in mathematics curriculum, instruction and assessment
Objective 4: To develop grades K-3, 4-6 and 7-8 models for use in professional development throughout the regions and in statewide professional development outreach efforts
The Need
A major challenge for Washington State is to accelerate the improvement of mathematics scores as measured by the Washington Assessments of Student Learning (WASL). The WASL is a challenging statewide criterion reference test currently administered at grades 4, 7 and 10 and directly tied to Washington standards.
The mathematics WASL has changed instruction within Washington State by virtue of its requirements that students justify and model their answers. This has moved instruction from a primary rule based format to instruction based on the development of conceptual understandings. There is no question that progress is being made. However, the data indicates that students’ deep understandings begin to lag at 4th grade with the introduction of rational numbers (fractions, decimals, percents) and integers.
Research and assessment suggest that a major factor in the decline of student performance during the upper middle school years is that teachers themselves lack the conceptual understandings essential for preparing elementary students for their middle school mathematics. Many students enter middle school without the conceptual understandings and mathematical fluency essential for moving from the concrete arithmetic reasoning to the more abstract proportional reasoning of the middle school mathematics curriculum. The problem is confounded by the under-preparedness of middle school mathematics teachers and their lack of deep conceptual understandings.
The missing links for continued acceleration of mathematics proficiency improvements are:
- The need for rigorous professional development and support which can help teachers in the development of student understandings and connectedness throughout the mathematics strands, e.g. Deborah Ball
- The need for more thoughtful development of school curriculum which is focused on the most critical concepts of school mathematics rather than attempting to cover an excessive number of topics, e.g. William Schmidt
- The need for balancing direct instruction and student involvement in powerful ways which can result in deep understandings and mathematical fluency, e.g. Jeremy Kilpatrick
The proposed professional development program seeks to meet the needs identified above by conducting a careful analysis of available research, and integrating it into high quality professional development models aligned with the research based Washington State Professional Development Planning Guide.
Project Plan
In Washington State, professional development responsibility is shared among the SEA, regional Education Service Districts (of which there are nine statewide), school districts and schools and institutions of higher education. If professional development is to be accepted, partnerships among these agencies are required. Therefore, this grant will demonstrate shared leadership and involvement of the relevant players. The four objectives will be implemented in a collaborative fashion with oversight and facilitation from the Office of the Superintendent Public Instruction.
Steps which will be taken to implement the objectives include the following:
Objective 1: Identification of high quality, scientifically based mathematics research.
· A series of consultations with state and national experts in mathematics curriculum, pedagogy and assessment will be held for the partners in early fall to identify research principles and findings
· Partners will form subgroups to more deeply examine the implications for professional development for K-3, 4-6 and 7-8 mathematics professional development
· Using the Washington State Professional Development Planning Guide, subgroups will develop frameworks for provision of professional development
· The frameworks will be presented for review to the Washington State Teacher Leadership Cadre. These 150 teacher leaders represent Washington State’s preeminent professional development networks and are the authors of the Washington State Guide to Teacher Professional Development Planning
· The partners will use the analysis and critique of the Teacher Leadership Cadre to refine and field test the frameworks
· The partners will present the frameworks at the State’s January Conference to more than 2,500 educators
· Reactions obtained at the January Conference will be evaluated and incorporated in a final edition of the frameworks and disseminated to key professional development groups statewide in the spring
· The 2004 summer institutes will feature a focus on mathematics education. At these three institutes over 5,000 participants will have the opportunity to learn and gain the skills to use these frameworks
Dissemination
The frameworks will be disseminated in two ways – direct dissemination will include publication and distribution of the frameworks, on-line via SEA and ESD websites, videoconference training on the use of the frameworks, incorporation in technical assistance and focused assistance and inclusion in SEA and ESD sponsored events which occur as part of the year round professional development cycle. Indirect dissemination will include the use of the frameworks in other SEA programs such as bilingual education, ELL, special education, No-Limits (technology program), teacher preparation programs, consultations with higher education institutions, alignment of assessments with mathematics research, and curriculum alignment.
As a major component of this program, targeted dissemination will be made to all State Education Agencies and placed on the OSPI website. Additionally it will be made available to any state, educational service district, school district or professional organization upon request.
Evaluation
The essential requirement for all evaluation is documentation. All activities will be carefully documented and participant comments and reactions will be recorded and analyzed.
The ultimate evaluation of the success of the total project is found in two criteria:
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Does the professional development accurately reflect the research and has it been translated into effective professional development?
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Is it being implemented in classrooms with fidelity and are there indicators that the quality of mathematics teaching and student mathematical proficiencies are improving?
An amount of up to 10% of the total grant award will be devoted to a study by nationally recognized experts in mathematics education to determine the degree to which the criteria above have been met. 
