System-wide Change: An Experimental Study of Teacher Development and Student Achievement in Elementary Science

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

"System-wide Change: An Experimental Study of Teacher Development and Student Achievement in Elementary Science" tests the impact on student achievement of a content-rich, systemic intervention in teacher development for elementary school science in a large, urban school district. "System-wide Change" is a broad-based approach to science teaching and learning that involves a partnership among university scientists, science educators, and K to 12 practitioners. It addresses preservice and in-service teacher education and curricular development and is supported by a comprehensive NSF Math and Science Partnership (MSP) known as SCALE (System-wide Change for All Learners and Educators). The study will test the achievement benefits of the System-wide Change elementary science component, which provides fourth- and fifth-grade teachers with professional development in summer institutes and ongoing coaching and mentoring in the use of detailed instructional guides for elementary science. The instructional guides contain conceptual lessons coupled with science immersion units that bring teachers and students through a full cycle of inquiry in core problems of scientific investigation. This should lead to deeper understanding of science, higher scores on science achievement tests, and reduced inequality of science achievement. The experiment contrasts (a) schools with lead teachers who attended a summer institute and all of whose fourth- and fifth-grade teachers receive coaching and mentoring to implement the instructional guides, with (b) control schools whose teachers received the instructional guides but not the associated professional development. This research will reveal the causal impact of the teacher development activities on student learning of standards-based science. It will take place in Los Angeles, the largest district in the SCALE partnership and a context in which raising test scores in science is a great need and high priority.