Skip to: Content | Footer

California Postsecondary Education Data Home Page

Improving Teacher Quality

Evidence-Based, Quality Professional Development in Algebra for Learners' Success (EQALS)

Grant Number: 10-703

Grant Award: $996,284

Duration of Project: Thursday, September 30, 2010 - Monday, September 01, 2014

Project Subject Areas: Mathematics

Grade Band: High School

Institutes of Higher Education:

  • California State University, Long Beach

Local Education Agencies:

  • Long Beach Unified, Long Beach

Partners:

  • The CSU Center to Close the Achievment Gap

Number of teachers/principals/highly qualified paraprofessionals participating in the project:

40

Goals:

  1. Increase high school student achievement in algebra
  2. Increase teacher content and pedagogical knowledge in mathematics to accelerate academic proficiency for all students and reduce achievement gaps
  3. Develop a systematic model for differentiated instruction based on ongoing data collection
  4. Establish professional learning communities (PLCs) that will positively impact teacher pedagogy and reflective practices, and
  5. Contribute research to the educational community through documented evidence of scientifically based practices and subsequent widespread dissemination of findings

Activities:

  1. 1.) Ongoing PD for teachers during the academic year that focuses on issues of practice and the development of PLCs and includes within-class coaching and support
  2. PD for teachers during the summer that focuses on content and pedagogical content knowledge, as well as data based decision making to provide differentiated instruction, and
  3. Ongoing collaboration and PD with principals to provide them support in curriculum and staff leadership, including how to effectively facilitate PLCs

Anticipated Outcomes:

  1. Increased student achievement in algebra, particularly for underperforming subgroups
  2. Increased teacher knowledge of content and pedagogy
  3. Increased teacher usage of progress monitoring data to make decisions about instruction on an ongoing basis
  4. 100% of participating teachers and site principals engage in PLCs, and
  5. Ongoing dissemination of research findings

Contacts:

Project: Kristi Hagens, Research Director, khagensm@csulb.edu
Institute of Higher Education: Babette Benkins, Co-Director, bbenkens@csulb.edu
Institute of Higher Education: Cara Richards-Tutor, Project Director, crichar4@csulb.edu
Local Education Agency: Christine Dominguez, LEA Co-Director, cdominquez@lbschools.net

Questions, Comments, Corrections?

Send an e-mail to Teacher_Quality@cpec.ca.gov .