Virginia Mathematics Teacher Fall 2016

Integrating Federal, State and Local Mandates for the Benefit of Teachers’

Professional Learning Joanna K. Garner and Melani A. Loney,

Abstract

based PD features, and effective strategies for building school-university partnerships. Project 1, Learning Enhanced through the Nature of Science (LENS), began in 2011 and served two cohorts of science teachers in high schools. Project 2, Discourse ‘n’ Argumentation: Building Blocks for Middle School Science Literacy (D’n’A), began in 2013 and served two cohorts of science teachers in high-needs middle schools. Project 3, Building Bridges Across the Curriculum Using Argument Driven Inquiry (Bridges) began in 2015 and currently serves two cohorts of teachers from high- needs elementary schools. The first author served as the Principal Investigator of all three projects. Old Dominion University was the lead IHE in each partnership in collaboration with the College of William and Mary (LENS), Tidewater Community College (LENS, D’n’A) and the University of Texas at Austin (D’n’A, Bridges). Division partners include Virginia Beach City Public Schools, Portsmouth Public Schools, Hampton City Schools and Newport News City Public Schools. Mapping MSP Priorities on to School- University Collaborations Selected from VDOE MSP Request for Proposal documents (VDOE, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014) 1 , the project priorities shown in Table 1 align with the federal MSP theory of action, which is that student achievement can be impacted through teacher professional development. Also shown are research-based strategies included in the projects (Borko, 2004; Darling-Hammond, Wei, Richardson & Orphanos, 2009) and implementation strategies. Project 1: Learning Enhanced through the Nature of Science (LENS): An Interdisciplinary Approach to High School Science (2012-2014) LENS responded to the 2011 call from VDOE to integrate Earth Science and Physical Science with other sciences and nature of science principles (Flick & Lederman, 2004). PD activities saw multiple cohorts (48 teachers in total) working 1 More information can be found on the United States Department of Education website for the MSP program, at http:// www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg26.html

This article is intended to provide school division mathematics and science administrators and instructional specialists as well as university faculty members with a summary of three Virginia Mathematics and Science Partnership projects to illustrate how projects can align federal, state and local level mandates and goals. Project 1, LENS, developed Virginia Beach City Public Schools’ high school teachers of Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry and Physics teachers’ content knowledge and nature of science understandings, assessment literacy, capacity for data-informed instruction, and peer coaching skills. Project 2, D’n’A, provided professional development (PD) for middle school Life, Physical and Earth Science teachers in Portsmouth Public Schools and Virginia Beach City Public Schools. The project highlighted the Argument Driven Inquiry (ADI) instructional model to increase teachers’ instructional emphasis on argumentation. The project also resulted in spontaneous transfer of ADI to mathematics lessons in one school. Project 3, Bridges, is ongoing. It provides PD for teachers in high needs elementary schools in Portsmouth Public Schools, Hampton City Schools and Newport News Public Schools. Activities provide grade 4 and 5 teachers with the knowledge and skills to bridge or integrate inquiry-oriented science with mathematics and English content through Argument Driven Inquiry, while PD for grade 3 teachers focuses on the development of performance based assessments that measure student progress in scientific investigation and mathematics-related science skills. Descriptions of these projects, are enhanced by the addition of tables and figures that summarize a collaborative approach to partnership formation and maintenance that was implemented throughout all phases of each project. The general model is provided as a reference for those seeking to design PD in science and mathematics.

Overview

In this article we situate three Virginia Mathematics Science Partnership projects within the broader contexts of MSP priorities, research-

Virginia Mathematics Teacher vol. 43, no. 1

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