What's New
Eisenhower Assessment and Dissemination
The federally-funded ITQ State Grant Program is based on a simple, if challenging premise: To raise the achievement levels of K-12 students in math and science, we must first improve the skills and content comprehension of their teachers and prospective teachers. To achieve this goal, the ITQ Program has provided funds on a competitive basis to institutions of higher education that have joined with schools and districts to design and implement a wide range of professional development projects.
In California, the Program is coordinated by CPEC (California Postsecondary Education Commission). In contrast to coordinating agencies in other states,, CPEC has funded a relatively small number of large projects -- with its average grant totaling approximately $225,000 per year for up to three years. CPEC has given highest priority to projects that target historically underrepresented groups -- particularity poor children and students of color-- helping them succeed in elementary and secondary school math and science courses, while encouraging them to pursue a college education. This long-range, large-grant, multi-year strategy has placed great demands on each project, requiring that all efforts be well-designed and carefully be well-designed and carefully implemented.
CPEC's ambitious approach has also prompted the state advisory committee and program administrators to place a strong emphasis on evaluation. Indeed, only through the persistent and conscientious review of all projects can we begin to understand why some efforts have succeeded while others failed. In California, evaluation has also emerged as an important issue because of CPEC's attempt to align projects with other enterprises focusing on professional development, including programs funded by the National Science Foundation.
In 1991, CPEC began to investigate various methods for strengthening the collection and analysis of project outcomes. Rejecting the inevitably idiosyncratic designs of independent and uncoordinated project evaluations, CPEC aimed for a comprehensive, on-going evaluative process that would measure progress towards the state and national goals. To this end, the program administrators awarded a planning grant to Inverness Research Associates. This private research firm conducted a series of focus groups and planning meetings that ultimately led to the formation of the Assessment and Dissemination Project.
From it's beginning, the Assessment and Dissemination Project functioned as an independent project jointly coordinated by Inverness Research Associates and the CPEC administration, the A&D team drew together skilled and experienced educational evaluators who had been identified and selected by the Eisenhower advisory committee. The new A&D team members included curriculum developers, math and science project directors, a specialist in diversity and equity issues, and a former program officer for the National Science Foundation; several team members worked as full-time professional evaluators. Drawing form this wide range of skills and backgrounds, the researchers were able to frame their analysis from multiple perspectives and craft their findings in an unusually cohesive and integrated manner.
PURPOSES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE A&D TEAM
The work undertaken by the A&D team can be divided into three main areas.Reporting: The A&D team's primary task was to assist CPEC in meeting its federal reporting requirements, while documenting the full scope of the projects' objectives, activities, and accomplishments. The researchers assessed all projects in terms of numbers served; program quality; inclusiveness; cost effectiveness; sustainability; and overall significance.
Feedback: The A&D team also helped participants gain perspective on their projects' design, implementation, and effectiveness by consciously blending elements of formal evaluation with on site technical assistance. On a much larger scale, the researchers provided feedback to the Eisenhower Program leader, suggesting potential improvements in their review process, Request For Proposals, and other administrative functions.
Extension: Finally, the A&D team enabled projects to learn about each other's struggles and accomplishments by actively disseminating information about the overall program. By outlining the lessons drawn form the state wide effort, the researchers assisted project staff, CPEC leaders, federal administrators, and a wide range of educators to grasp the most subtle implications of program design.
To accomplish the complex and often interrelated tasks of reporting, feedback, and extension, the A&D team adopted two modes of research: case studies and surveys.
SURVEY
The A&D team also documented and described project participants and activities through an annual survey. The tabulated date a was passed along to all projects as a component of the annual A&D report.The Scope of A&D Findings
Through its case studies and surveys, the A&D team has been able to assemble and analyze information about the CPEC Teacher Quality projects from six vantage points.
Quality: The A&D team consistently focused on issues of utility, leadership, and vision as it appraised the value of all activities. The comprehension and pedagogical training. As unified effort, the entire CPEC Eisenhower program was examined in terms of its coherence, collaborations, and alliances with complementary reform efforts.
Quantity: The evaluators also composed a statistical portrait of professional development activities. In addition to data on each projects's average and total number of participants, the A&D team calculated the number of institutes and other activities; teachers served; faculty members involved in school wide efforts; and hours devoted to projects by teachers and teacher leaders.
Cost Effectiveness: The survey data also enabled the evaluators to calculate project costs for each institute or activity; participant; program hour; and participant hour.
Accessibility and Inclusiveness: the A&D team investigated the issues of equity and diversity in several ways. To begin, the survey data revealed the ethnicity and gender of all participating teachers and students as well as the racial and class composition of the partner schools and districts. This data also pointed to the state wide geographical distribution of professional development efforts.
Beyond the raw numbers, the blend of survey and case studies helped the A&D team to document, analyze, and suggest strategies for expanding participant diversity. The researchers advocated various ways of assisting teachers to work with diverse student populations while simultaneously using the Eisenhower projects to attract young people of color and other members of underrepresented groups to the teaching profession.
Impact and Sustainability: The A&D team used the case studies to determine how CPEC Teacher Quality projects might be integrated into the on going activities of participating school, districts, and state wide professional development efforts. Researchers considered the pedagogical issues related to curriculum, materials, and assessment as well as the abiding pragmatic concerns of logistics, funding, and the inevitable political struggles over time and financial resources.
Overall Significance: Finally, the case studies and surveys enabled evaluators to characterize the general effectiveness of CPEC Teacher Quality projects in realizing the long term goal of professional growth and classroom transformation. In sum, this process stimulated a realistic appraisal of the effort and time required to improve math and science education in schools and districts and change the culture of teaching and learning.
About This Monograph
This monograph consists of ten essays written by members of the A&D team. As a body, these essays seek to clarify the issues of design and implementation that have repeatedly emerged in discussions of CPEC Eisenhower's fifty plus professional development projects. By drawing upon numerous examples taking place in the field over the past three years, the essays also illuminate the challenges presently facing the reform movement in math and science education.The monograph's first three essays concentrate on the complex relationship of professional development to teacher, schools, and districts. The task of determining the most effective strategy of improving teachers' classroom skills and content knowledge is the subject of "Three Steps Towards Building Better Teachers: Developmental Levels of Professional Support for Teacher Change." The potential and problems of school based reform is examined in "The School as a Fundamental Unit of Change." The task of working with multiple sites throughout a school district is outlined in "Collaborations Between School Districts and Institutions of Higher Education."
"The Role of Curriculum in Teacher Professional Development Projects: The Journey is Often the Reward" shows how innovations in curriculum can spur on professional development. The role of assessment is covered in "Assessment as a Vehicle of Professional Development: Moving Teachers Further Along the Continuum."
"Pipeline Projects: Recruiting and Supporting Minority Students of Future Careers in Math and Science Education: looks at efforts to attract underrepresented students to the teaching profession. "Program Design and Issues of Equity" analyzes the strategies used by various projects to address the equitable participation of teachers and students in all CPEC Eisenhower project activities over the past three years.
"The Role of Partnerships and Alliances in Eisenhower Projects" grapples with the effort to use scientific experts, corporations, parents, and other community resources to stimulate student learning. "Quantitative Indicators Used to Document CPEC's Professional Development Projects; provides a conceptual framework for assessing professional development efforts. And finally, "Ten Problems Afflicting the Eisenhower Projects And Some Suggested Remedies" offers a frank and spirited analysis of why even the best intended efforts may alter and how we can bolster their chances of success.