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MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE PARTNERSHIP (MSP) GRANT PROGRAM
(Updated 8/21/09)

The goals of the MSP are: 1) to increase the academic achievement of students in mathematics and science by enhancing the content knowledge and teaching skills of classroom teachers; 2) to build statewide capacity for professional development of K-12 staff by establishing networks of highly skilled teacher leaders in mathematics and science; and 3) to develop partnerships among K-12 educators, STEM faculty, and higher education personnel. Funds from the MSP are currently being used to support high quality professional development programs in Vermont. Three-year MSP projects funded for 2009-2010 include:

• The Southwest Vermont Science Partnership Enhancement Program (Added 8/21/09)
• Vermont Math Initiative (Updated 8/21/09)
• Vermont Science Initiative (Updated 8/21/09)

The Southwest Vermont Science Partnership Enhancement Program
Project Director: Maureen Maidrand

The Southwest Vermont Science Partnership Enhancement Program was developed to improve student science achievement across the high-need region served by the Southwest Vermont Superintendents’ Curriculum Coordinators’ Collaborative (SWVCCC). Delivered in partnership with Castleton State and Bennington College, Southwest VITA-Learn, and the Bennington Area Chamber of Commerce, the program will result in a qualitative, cultural shift in the teaching and learning of science across nine Vermont Supervisory Unions by developing 60 “STAR” teachers who complete the five core program requirements of 1)Science Content instruction (90 hours), 2) “Best Practices” course in science teaching, with a focus on “scientific inquiry”, 3) 21st Century Technology embedded professional development, 4) Writing in the Sciences, and 5) Formative Assessment Project Training. An additional 240 teachers will benefit from selective participation in program components over the three-year period. The initiative will be reinforced and sustained through the development of a Regional Infrastructure for Science Success to include:

• An annual regional Southwest Vermont Science and 21st Century Technology symposium;
• A regional electronic platform for teacher and program support to include electronic communication, web science resources, and featured exemplary teacher lessons and student science projects;
• The SWVSP Science Brain Bank, allowing for local Guest Scientists in classrooms; and
• An annual Summer Science Assessment Institute;
• Beyond improving the science achievement of Southwest Vermont PreK-12 students, the program will increase the region’s capacity to deliver effective science instruction by developing professional collaboration among primary, intermediate, and secondary science teachers, and meaningful connections among educational and business communities.

Vermont Math Initiative
Project Director: Kenneth Gross

The mission of VMI is to improve mathematics instruction and raise student achievement across all of Vermont. The VMI is based on a two-stage model.

• Phase I: Begun in 1999 is a three-year Master’s Degree program that builds school and district mathematics leadership capacity. To date, VMI Phase I has trained 256 teacher leaders representing 132 schools and 53 school districts.
• Phase II (District Implementation Component): Launched in 2006 with MSP Title IIB support. Phase II brings VMI systemically into a district with core mathematics content distilled from the Phase I curriculum. Learning and transfer to the classroom is sustained and amplified through formative assessment, mentoring, and other meaningful experiences led by the district's Phase I trained teacher leaders. In the three years of its existence, Phase II has been delivered to 208 teachers from 72 schools in 24 districts.

Ongoing program evaluation has consistently shown that VMI has a profound impact on the VMI teachers themselves, their classroom practice, and most importantly their students. Especially significant in light of the educational equity focus of VMI and the Title IIB MSP program, the quantitative evaluation studies indicate that the achievement gap is narrowing significantly for free or reduced lunch eligible students taught by VMI trained teachers.

This proposal continues the progression of VMI toward its goal of reaching all elementary and middle school teachers in Vermont. To that end, they propose to extend Phase II to a self-sustaining “in house” district model that provides all teachers in a district with the full Phase II VMI experience – including the content, formative assessment, and follow-up training – in a cost effective way that meets the particular needs of the district. In this model Phase II will be delivered by the district’s Phase I trained teacher leaders with VMI providing ongoing support as needed. In Year 1 of this proposal, they will pilot the Self-Sustaining Phase II model in three partner districts, two of which are the most rural and most urban high-need districts in the state.

Viewed from an overarching perspective, this proposal extends the critical mass of Vermont teachers who know mathematics well, love mathematics, and can bring Vermont to the “tipping point” at which mathematics instruction provides every Vermont student with the depth of understanding and skills demanded by the technological era in which we live and the economic well-being of Vermont.

Vermont Science Initiative
Project Director: Elizabeth Dolci

The overarching mission of the Vermont Science Initiative (VSI) is to achieve science literacy for all Vermont students. To attain this goal, they envision a comprehensive, statewide system of teacher training and support that produces (a) outstanding science educators with a deep understanding of their content, the methods of inquiry in science, and the researched, best practices in science teaching, and (b) a cadre of skilled teacher leaders of science who will deliver professional development to their colleagues within their schools and districts.

The VSI involves teachers in high quality training and learning experiences that directly impact their content knowledge and their ability to deliver that content via sound, research-based content-pedagogy and to evaluate student learning through formative and summative assessments. Acquisition of these skills is coupled with instruction in leadership and support of the school administrator. The resulting improved practice will spread from schools through districts, with students demonstrating an improved learning of science accompanied with a deepening of critical thinking skills.

The VSI consists of a two-tiered professional development model:

• VSI Tier 1 encompasses a three year sequence of intensive science learning experiences leading to a master’s degree in science education for K-8 teachers. To date, VSI Tier has trained over 40 teachers and will add a fourth cohort of 20 teachers during the proposed Title IIB funding period.
  • VSI Science Leadership Academy: Another pathway to developing science teacher leaders is through the VSI Leadership Academy. This option allows teachers to focus on a 13-15 credit program within Tier 1 which offers coursework in Pedagogy, Science Assessment, Leadership and Science content.
• VSI Tier 2 is a one year professional development program for K-8 teachers that focuses on mastery of science content knowledge, acquiring science-teaching skills, and improving general teaching practice. Now in its third year, Tier II has trained over 80 teachers in 33 schools and nine school districts or supervisory unions with many more districts planning programs for the future.

VSI partners include school districts/supervisory unions, regional education service agencies (ESAs), and the faculty from Vermont institutions of higher education. With partnering districts statewide and the regional reach of the ESAs, VSI has the capacity to reach large numbers of teachers throughout the state.

One-year MSP projects funded for 2009-2010 include:

• Increasing Science Rigor and Relevance for Students Enrolled in Agriculture Education
  Project Director: D. Lynn Coale

It is the intent of this proposal to develop a partnership between the Patricia Hannaford Career Center and the three high schools in the Center’s service area to create a pilot project that addresses issues in secondary science education in Vermont schools. Middlebury Union High School, Vergennes Union High School, Mount Abraham Union High School and the Patricia A Hannaford Career Center will in addition partner with science faculty from Vermont Technical College and Castleton State College to develop this pilot program. The intent of this project is that by increasing the rigor in secondary science while providing the relevance offered in the agriculture curriculum, the achievement gap in science between agriculture students and their peers can be overcome.

This grant is written in the hopes of developing a pilot program that can in future years be duplicated to eventually include all agriculture programs in the state of Vermont.

Goals of the Project

• Increase the rigor of science content in Agriculture Education.
• Increase relevance and application of science content in regular science classes.
• Develop an increased knowledge of science and agriculture content for the high school science teachers and the agriculture education teachers.
• Establish concurrent enrolled credit with post-secondary for science content in Agriculture Education.

• STEM 4 E
  Project Director: Dena St. Amour

The Franklin Northwest Supervisory Union and the Vermont Math Initiative share a goal common not only to educators, but to the nation. This partnership seeks to advance the overarching goal of the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) to “ensure that all students have access to high quality instruction in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) areas.”** Further, the partnership aims to obtain community support for STEM and expose our students to STEM careers. As SETDA notes, the students who began kindergarten in the fall of 2008 will graduate in 2020. What will their world be like?  More than eight years into the 21st century, it is time for teachers and schools to Engage, Excite, Energize, and Educate our children for a world we cannot today imagine.

The plan includes community Engagement through an Advisory Board and student created project Web page; create Excitement about math by bringing our students together with college level math professors; Energize students about STEM related careers by taking them out into the business world to see careers in action and talk with those who use math in their everyday lives; and improve the Education of students by creating teacher learning communities (TLC) among K-12 teachers. The TLC will join in a 10-day content course, followed by four days of targeted formative assessment training. The TLC will then support one another by meeting in both the physical and virtual worlds, with ongoing support provided by instructors from the Vermont Math Initiative (VMI).

** SETDA Class of 2020: Action Plan for Education. http://setda.org

• Vermont Secondary Science Partnership
  Project Director: Regina Toolin

Project Vision:
The Vermont Secondary Science Partnership (VSSP) is based on the fundamental vision and philosophy that all students who are consistently engaged in relevant, engaging and content-rich inquiry and projects will demonstrate increased achievement, interest and enthusiasm for the sciences and environmental issues. In order for students to be motivated and engaged in challenging, content-rich investigative experiences, teachers themselves must be consistently engaged in professional development that models inquiry, problem and project-based approaches to teaching science. VSSP will provide science teachers with many opportunities to engage, reflect upon, and research questions about learning, content, teaching, and assessment during the program workshops and the school-based PLC’s.

Project Goals:
The long-term goal in this project is to broaden the participation of Grade 7-12 teachers in STEM education, specifically in chemistry, atmospheric, geospatial, physical, and Earth sciences, against the backdrop of alarming evidence that points towards the decline of math and science achievement at a national level. Specific project goals are as follows:

1. To enhance the content knowledge and pedagogical skills of 7-12 partner teachers needed to help students achieve Vermont State Learning Standards in HSS and SMT standards.

2. To enhance teacher knowledge of inquiry, problem-solving and project-based learning as ways of teaching and learning science.

3. To enhance 7-12 partner teachers’ ability to reflect on their teaching, to implement appropriate methods and strategies of formative assessment, and to conduct action research projects to measure the efficacy and impact of their delivery of effective science instruction.

4. To engage and excite under-represented students in both urban and rural settings to increase their interest in the physical and Earth sciences, technology engineering and mathematics.

Project Activities:
VSSP will be initiated in July 2009 with activities in the field and on the UVM campus. Teachers involved in the Earth science workshops will be engaged in content knowledge in meteorology, climate and engineering and exposure to cutting edge geospatial technologies. For teachers involved in the physical science workshops, topics will link standards-based content to current research in chemistry (i.e., energy consumption) and include information and practice with chemistry investigations that can be modified to specific courses. Teachers will be guided in a specific model of teaching and learning (POGIL) that models a process oriented inquiry approach to teaching science. Teachers will attend a series of after school meetings during the school year following their Summer Institute experience where they will engage in sharing and cooperative problem solving associated with UbD curriculum development, project-based instruction, formative assessment and the collection and analysis of action research data. Teachers will regularly communicate their questions, preliminary findings and general queries through a common Wiki site for use by all program participants.

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