- Year 2016
- NSF Noyce Award # 1557328
- First Name Tom
- Last Name Dick
- Discipline Mathematics, Science
- Co-PI(s)
Rebekah Elliot, Oregon State University, rebekah.elliot@oregonstate.edu
SueAnn Bottoms, Oregon State University, sueann.bottoms@oregonstate.edu - Presenters
SueAnn Bottoms, Oregon State University, sueann.bottoms@oregonstate.edu
Need
The project will provide fellowships for 16 ‘Ambitious Math and Science Teaching Fellows'(AM&S TFs) to complete a Masters degree program leading to licensure in secondary mathematics or science teaching. The project will also provide professional development of the Teaching Fellows during the first four years of service after the MS degree as Science and Math teachers in high needs schools and support networks of teachers engaged in induction/mentoring of the Teaching Fellows during the duration of the grant. This support includes (i) enacting research-based teacher preparation courses and clinical practice experiences while fellows are enrolled in the Masters degree program, (ii) professional development to support induction of new Math
and Science teachers and district mentors, coaches, and leaders, and (iii) support teacher retention and excellence in ambitious teaching. Ambitious teaching means instructional practices and routines that support every student, across racial, ethnic, gender, and linguistic boundaries, learning key ideas within a discipline with the aim of solving authentic problems. Each summer OSU would also receive a salary supplement each year for the four years they work in a high needs school, for participating in grant activities, discussions and taking on a leadership role
in their schools.
Goals
Ambitious teaching has been defined in the literature to mean instructional practices and routines that support every student, across racial, ethnic, gender, and linguist boundaries, learning key ideas within a discipline with the aim of solving authentic problems (Kazemi, Franke, Lampert, 2009; Newman & Associates, 1996).
The Ambitious Math and Science Teaching Fellows project (AM&S-TF) seeks to provide 16 mathematics and science STEM majors NSF Noyce program Teacher Fellowships to become licensed mathematics and science teachers through Oregon State University’s Masters degree program, and to provide mentorship and continuing professional development for these teachers to undertake ambitious teaching over their first four years of mathematics or science teaching service in high needs schools.
The project builds from a previously funded and recently completed NSF Noyce project: “Mathematics Studio Classroom Fellowship Program: A Model for Mentoring New and Master Teachers” (funded through NSF grant #0934953). The emphasis in the previous Noyce project was primarily on Master Teacher Fellows who were teacher leaders developed through the NSF funded MSP project ‘Oregon Mathematics Leadership Institute Partnership’ (OMLI, funded through the NSF-MSP grant #0412253).
A relatively small component of the previous Noyce project involved the preservice preparation and subsequent mentoring of 4 Teacher Fellows in mathematics participating in the Math Studio Classrooms with the Master Teacher Fellows. The current project proposal seeks to concentrate and expand its efforts in preservice preparation and subsequent mentoring and professional development of Teacher Fellows in both mathematics and science teaching. This effort was considered most appropriate for a Track 2 Phase 1 proposal. The proposal is to provide two cohorts of 8 mathematics and science preservice teacher candidates (16 total Teaching Fellows) a Masters Degree program culminating in licensure after one calendar year, followed by four years of professional development and networking to become both ambitious teachers as well as teacher leaders in the high needs schools they serve.
Qualifications for AM&S Teaching Fellows:
Individuals with undergraduate degrees in STEM field who are enrolled in the Master’s Degree Licensure program selected on academic merit, professional achievement, and diversity of participants in the program.
Benefits for AM&S Teaching Fellows:
Teaching Fellows are provided with both a $16,000 forgivable fellowship loan during the Masters degree licensure program and a full academic year of tuition remission through the OSU graduate school. Following successful completion of the Masters degree licensure program, each Teaching Fellow is expected to serve four years in a high needs local educational agency (LEA) defined by at least one of the following high percentage of individuals from families with incomes below the poverty level, high percentage of secondary teachers not teaching in the content area in which they were trained, or high teacher turnover. Teaching Fellows will receive mentoring and professional development in preparation to take on leadership roles (curriculum development, mentoring, assisting in planning and implementing professional development, or participating in teacher education program). For each of the four years served as a mathematics or science teacher in a high needs LEA, the Teaching Fellow is eligible for forgiveness of 25% of the fellowship loan as well as a $10,000 annual salary supplement.
Objectives and aims of the AM&S Teaching Fellows Project:
The general project objectives are as follows:
Objective 1- Recruit undergraduate students and practicing professionals in the
STEM disciplines into Secondary Education.
Objective 2- Provide a high quality graduate program in Math and Science Education
that builds upon STEM students’ and professionals’ undergraduate degree in
Science, Math, or Engineering.
Objective 3- Increase the number of graduates with a Master’s of Science in Science
and Mathematics Education who are prepared and licensed to ambitiously teach Secondary Science or Mathematics aligned with the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSSM) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
Objective 4- Provide ongoing professional development and membership in the Math Science Teacher Network supporting continued learning of ambitious teaching of the CCSSM and NGSS.
With the support of the AM&S Teaching Fellows Program, OSU’s College of Science and Education faculty will help academically talented STEM students with financial need achieve a high level of success as Secondary Science or Math Teachers. AM&S Teaching Fellows will develop instructional skill in teaching ambitious goals for secondary math and science students, participate in robust opportunities to learn math and science content for teaching, and engage in a Network of math and science educators that span grade levels, school districts, and university affiliations.The following specific aims are designed to achieve these four overarching objectives:
Aim 1- Ensure scholars are of high academic ability by requiring a minimum GPA of 3.0, which is maintained throughout their participation in the Masters of Science in Mathematics or Science Education with Initial Licensure (MSL).
Aim 2 – Make a strong effort to recruit traditionally underrepresented groups in the STEM disciplines (women, minorities, and disabled students) into the AM&S Teaching Fellows Program.
Aim 3 – Encourage and support all AM&S Teaching Fellows to complete a Masters degree, math or science teaching license, and English as a Second LanguagE (ESOL) endorsement within one calendar year of entering the MSL program.
Aim 4 – Assist AM&S Teaching Fellows in obtaining secondary math or science teaching positions in the high needs areas districts serving English Language Learners.
Aim 5 – Provide continuing professional development through membership in the Math and Science Network and the OSU Math and Science Teacher Summer Institute.
Approach
The work of the MSL program supported by the AM&S-TF project is part of a growing national movement to integrate pedagogies of investigation and enactment into teacher education (Grossman & MacDonald, 2008; Grossman, Compton, Igra, Ronfeldt, Shahan & Williamson, 2009; Lampert, 2010). In particular, science and mathematics teacher education researchers are advancing models where teachers are supported to develop knowledge and skills through investigating the work of teaching and learning and enacting the work of teaching with peers and students (Kazemi, Franke & Lampert, 2009; Windschitl, Thompson, Braaten, & Stroupe, 2012). Two underlying assumptions of this work are that the improvement of instruction requires professional development to
intervene directly on teachers’ interactions with students and that this intervention must be supported by investigations of the work of teaching through decomposing lessons to expose their disciplinary and pedagogical structure and reflecting on lessons to examine the learning opportunities made available to students (Grossman et al., 2009). These assertions are supported by the report on High Quality Professional Development for Teachers published by the Center for American Progress, as they call for professional development that is job-embedded, includes opportunities for active learning of new teaching strategies, and incorporates follow-up and continuous feedback (DeMonte, 2013).
The MSL program develops Fellows’ skill with a set of high-leverage instructional practices and routines that have a high probability of positively impacting student learning. Much of the research supporting MSL program strategies has been summarized in a new publication, Principles to Action: Ensuring mathematical success for all (which we refer to below as PtA) (NCTM, 2014). This document offers teachers, administrators and teacher educators a framework for supporting instruction that leverages the CCSSM (and we would claim Cross-Cutting Science and Engineering Practices from the NGSS). We have found this framework (see Figure 2) useful and supportive of the practices and routines of the MSL program.
** Principle to Action
** Establishing math/science goals to focus learning
** Pose purposeful questions
** Implementing tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving/inquiry
** Build procedural fluency from conceptual understanding
** Use and connect math representations & scientific models
** Support productive struggle in learning
** Facilitate meaningful disciplinary discourse
** Elicit and use evidence of student thinking.
Figure 2: Adapted from the PtA: Teaching Framework connected to MSL Program High Leverage Practices
The PtA framework and the MSL program practices have a great amount of over lap in their content and underlying principles. Moreover, the PtA has a national professional organization behind it providing resources, conferences, and publications. Our intention is to leverage these resources as they become available for Noyce AM&S Teaching Fellows and Math Science Network partners.
Recent research in mathematics and science education has documented the impact of developing a discourse community within classrooms where students have authentic opportunities to construct evidence based arguments, build on and critique arguments of peers, and connect across ideas to build explanations (Windschitl, et al, 2012; Engle & Conant, 2002; Herbal-Eisenmann, et al, 2012). The instructional practices utilized within the MSL program articulate ways for teachers to engage students in discourse and to make reasoning public and accessible by representing students’ reasoning verbally and
visually through the use of public records, and orienting students to one another and to key disciplinary concepts and practices.
Three instructional routines are central in the MSL program: launching tasks, orchestrating discussions, and addressing common errors. Each has an empirical research base. Jackson and colleagues (2013) examined over 100 classroom videos in 5 districts and identified key aspects of how teachers equitably launch math tasks such that students have access to: (a) the new math ideas distinguished from prior learning, (b) common academic and functional language of the task (Lee, Quinn, & Valde’s, 2013, see Understanding Language http://ell.stanford.edu/), and (c) the intended complexity of the task. These components of a launch, when attended to with fidelity, were highly correlated to improved student achievement. Embedded in MSL program cycles will be an attention to launching tasks so that math and science teachers’ instruction reflects the research-based routine identified by Jackson and colleagues.
Smith and Stein’s (2011) work on orchestrating discussions in mathematics classrooms informs our use of our second routine, orchestrating discussions, and their work supports specific teacher and student actions that have been found to support students in having equitable access to ideas. A recent publication, 5 Practices for Orchestrating Task-Based Discussions in Science by Cartier, Smith and colleagues (2013) will be integrated into MSL program cycles. The third teaching routine, addressing common errors, is a central aspect of teaching and one that many teachers benefit from exploring. This routine includes learning how to identify common errors, unpacking what disciplinary ideas are correct and which ones need attention, and developing instructional skill to interpret and respond to errors in productive and generative ways to support all learners (Bray & Santagata, 2014). The MSL program at the heart of the AM&S-TF project uses research- based approaches with teachers learning in, from and for practice and strategies focused on high-leverage instructional practices and routines.
Outcomes
The AM&S Teaching Fellow project will have both regional and national impact. Regionally the project, supporting 16 additional Secondary Science and Math Educators who will be join of the Math Science Teacher Network, will be active members sharing resources and expertise with ambitious math and science teaching and learning with colleagues. Further, evaluation results will be disseminated within the Network to leaders, teachers and administrators as a means of furthering the conversation about ambitious teaching. We also will present evaluation findings at the annual state meeting of Teachers of Teachers of Mathematics (TOTOM). Finally, because of the high interest, commitment, and collaboration among OSU’s College of Science, Education, and the Graduate School, and the fact that OSU is a land-grant institution with the mission to support citizens and institutions within the state, project details and evaluation findings will be shared with the University administration and faculty and through extension and outreach to our partners across the state. These communications will highlight the power to make substantive impact on K-12 STEM education due to the collective efforts across OSU’s College of Science, Education, and the Graduate School.
Dissemination at the national level will include communication with other Noyce and STEM teacher education programs, especially the Association of Land Grant Universities involved in the Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership (MTEP) (see, http://www.aplu.org/projects-and-initiatives/stem-education/mathematics-teacher- education-partnership/index.html). This partnership of over 250 universities, university systems and K-12 schools collaborate on research and development with keen interest in the development of ambitious teaching. OSU has been a partner in the project since its inception and is actively participating in collective efforts coordinating teacher education curriculum and assessments across institutions. In addition, project findings will be disseminated at annual meetings of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Association of Mathematics Teacher Educations, Association of Science Teacher Educations, and American Educational Research Association. Finally, project findings will result in manuscripts that will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals and available on project faculty’s websites.
Broader Impacts
The project will increase the recruitment and retention of high quality ambitious math and science teachers prepared to teach secondary math and science students, and English Language Learners, within these classrooms in high-needs schools. By creating a seamless connection between undergraduate and graduate programs at OSU, the faculty has created a pipeline for highly qualified, financially deserving, diverse secondary math and science teachers. These highly qualified teachers will work with approximately 200 secondary STEM students each year with an impact on nearly 13,000 students during the course of the project. In addition, these
teachers will be on the cutting-edge of new innovation in teaching, learning and assessment as it applies to the NGSS and CCSSM through on-going, on-line and face to face academic year professional development. Further, Fellows will be provided with deep learning opportunities through an annual OSU Summer Institute co-sponsored by the College of Science and Education.
