Projects

This study explores the ways middle school mathematics teachers implement standards-based curriculum materials in urban schools. It takes the view that instructional materials are cultural tools and examines how teachers use these tools to plan and implement the curriculum in their classrooms. The study is using a mixed methods approach that combines surveys of teachers in 30 schools in the Newark Public Schools district and closer observations of teachers in selected case schools.

This project directly addresses middle school teachers' understanding, practice, and teaching of modern scientific practice. Using the Project GUTS program and professional development model as a foundation, this project will design and develop a set of Resources, Models, and Tools (RMTs) that collectively form the basis for a comprehensive professional development (PD) program, then study teachers' experiences with the RMTs and assess how well the RMTs prepared teachers to implement the curriculum.

This project will modify the teacher preparation program for preK-8 teachers. The program is designed to help pre-service teachers learn mathematics well, learn to access students' cultural funds of knowledge, and learn to encourage students' mathematical thinking. The developers are designing (a) modules that can be used in teacher preparation courses, (b) a mentoring program for new teachers, and (c) on-line networks to facilitate collaboration among participating teachers and institutions.

This two-year project will develop, pilot, validate, and publish a Teacher's Guide to the Science and Mathematics Resources of the ELPD Framework. This guide and related materials will translate the key science and mathematics concepts, ideas, and practices found within the ELPD Framework into classroom resources for direct use by teachers, schools, and districts to support English learners (ELs).

This project will investigate the implementation of a Teacher Residency Academy model to recruit, license, induct, employ, and retain middle school and secondary science teachers for high-need schools that serve more than 119,000 diverse students. The Alliance will: create a high-quality, rigorous, and clinically-based teacher preparation program for aspiring middle and secondary science teachers; recruit and support diverse science educators and contribute to the knowledge base regarding the implementation of a clinically-based science teacher.

This project will bring together a multi-disciplinary team of researchers and science teachers to identify a set of practices that science teachers can readily incorporate into their planning and instruction. The project will design, develop, and test a research-based professional learning approach to help middle school science teachers effectively support and sustain student motivational competencies during science instruction.

This project will bring together a multi-disciplinary team of researchers and science teachers to identify a set of practices that science teachers can readily incorporate into their planning and instruction. The project will design, develop, and test a research-based professional learning approach to help middle school science teachers effectively support and sustain student motivational competencies during science instruction.

This project will bring together a multi-disciplinary team of researchers and science teachers to identify a set of practices that science teachers can readily incorporate into their planning and instruction. The project will design, develop, and test a research-based professional learning approach to help middle school science teachers effectively support and sustain student motivational competencies during science instruction.

This project will develop and evaluate a module for use in a 7th grade classroom that promotes student development of 21st Century skills with a particular focus on student development of scientific reasoning. The technology-enhanced curriculum will be designed to engage learners in deep and meaningful investigations to promote student learning of content in parallel with 21st century skills.

Cybersecurity is becoming an increased concern among young technology users; however, elementary school teachers often have limited preparation to teach students about cybersecurity. This project is designed to iteratively develop, refine, and test an innovative professional development program that supports teachers to infuse cybersecurity into 4th-5th grade mathematics and science instruction. The project will synergistically merge cybersecurity with mathematics and science content in authentic, real-world contexts to teach topics such as cyberbullying, digital security, encryption/decryption, digital privacy, and digital footprint.

This research study investigates the impact of the wireless environment on high school science resulting in a professional development model that will inform professional developers, administrators, policy-makers and teachers. The project uses in-depth case studies to examine context factors (e.g. technology implementation plans, school culture, extent and type of teacher professional development and teacher background) and critical interactions that may influence science instructional practice in wireless high school science classrooms.

This project forms communities of practice among K-6 teachers using Web-based resources that allow audio and video connections in real time (http://justaskateacher.com) and conducts research that examines the impact of these communities of practice on school programs, teaching practices, and student achievement. We invite K-6 teachers and teacher educators to join us at http://justaskateacher.com.

This exploratory project is to enhance the ability of teachers to provide high quality STEM education for all students by developing research-based materials that enable teachers to facilitate students' progress toward statistical understanding.

Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) is a framework that puts students and their experiences at the center of teaching. Culturally relevant math and science teaching (CRMST), more specifically, describes equitable science and math teaching practices that support student success in schools. This project involves elementary teachers in a 3-day conference focusing on CRP and CRMST. The conference is designed to form a teacher collaborative to share experiences and resources, learn from one another, and create their own culturally relevant science and math units for use in their classrooms.

This five-year research project has as its central aim the testing of the Target Inquiry (TI) model of teacher professional development with secondary school chemistry teachers. This model emphasizes the importance of the inquiry process in teaching and learning science by combining a research experience for teachers (RET) with curriculum adaptation and action research.

This project is designed to enhance and study the development of elementary science teachers’ skills in managing productive classroom talk in inquiry-based physical science studies of matter. The project hypothesizes that aligning professional learning with conceptually-driven curricula and emphasizing the development of scientific discourse changes classroom culture and increases student learning. The project is developing new Web-based resources, Talk Science PD, to help elementary teachers facilitate scientific discourse.

This project is building a set of software tools, including a tool for annotating screen recordings of activities in games, a teacher data dashboard for information about students' in-game learning, and tools to help teachers customize activities in games to better align with curricular standards. The project will find out whether these new tools can enhance teaching and/or learning. 

This project provides a model of how existing, tested digital enhancements can increase student learning. Increasing the quality of science education requires careful coupling of effective, research-based curricula with innovative digital features that deepen and enhance science learning and teaching. This RAPID is to ensure that the content and pedagogical expertise is present during the development of the digital version of Foundation science.

The project is a four-year, early-stage design and development project aimed to refine a state-of-the-art professional development model to prepare K-8 teachers and instructional leaders in urban schools to facilitate and support successful K-8 STEM Education. The project will specifically explore which components of the program promote teacher change, which aspects of the program support structural changes for STEM teaching in schools, and what holds promise for interdisciplinary STEM teacher development.

This project will help teachers design and facilitate high-quality, real world STEM experiences for students, as teachers move from traditional approaches to organizing their teaching around interdisciplinary questions or problems. The project will work with building administrators to make the structural changes needed for interdisciplinary STEM instruction.

The goal of the grant is to establish a culture of inquiry with all partners in order to develop interdiciplinary, authentic STEM learning environments. Design-based research provides iterative cycles of implementation to explore and refine the approach as a transformative model for STEM programs. The model supports a sustainable approach by building the capacity of schools to focus on design issues related to content, pedagogy, and leadership.

This project builds on the study of the Ongoing Assessment Project's (OGAP) math assessment intervention on elementary teachers and students and combines the intervention with research-based understandings of systemic reform. This project will produce concrete tools, routines, and practices that can be applied to strengthen programs' implementation by ensuring the strategic support of school and district leaders.

This project tests the impact on student achievement of a content-rich, systemic intervention in teacher development for elementary school science. The study will test the benefits of the System-wide Change elementary science component, which provides teachers with professional development in summer institutes and ongoing coaching and mentoring in the use of detailed instructional guides for elementary science. This research will reveal the causal impact of the teacher development activities on student learning.

This project aims to pull together a diverse set of experts to make research-based recommendations on how to implement massive professional development that is needed to effectively employ the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in a way that will reform classroom instruction in mathematics for grades K-12.  The project is convening a meeting of experts to recommend how to design, implement, and assess large-scale professional development systems.

This project will create a fully online video-based model for mathematics teacher professional development focused on supporting mathematics coaches in rural contexts, building on the investigators' previous work focused on online professional learning opportunities for mathematics teachers in rural contexts. Results from the previous project focused on rural teachers and their coaches show that the professional development model increased connections between what teachers notice about student thinking and broader principles of teaching and learning, that teachers were able to enact stronger levels of ambitious mathematics instruction, and that teachers who received coaching showed a stronger focus on math content and instructional practice. This extension of the model to coaches includes an online content-focused coaching course, cycles of one-on-one video-based coaching, and an online video club to analyze coaching practice. The video clubs will be structured as a graduated model that will begin with facilitation by mentor coaches and move into coach participants facilitating their own sessions.