CSU Long Beach is once-again in the business of primary science education in Montebello and Garvey School Districts, working our way back to the work we began there in the late 1990's. In conjunction with K-12 Alliance, and Montebello Unified and Garvey School Districts, the CSU Long Beach has been awarded funding for a new professional development project to help improve science teaching in kindergarten through second grade. This is an exciting opportunity since this program will not only build on successes from this partnership's work but will expand the relationship through new connections to the districts' ELD work and will include an expanded research component.
The California Post Secondary Commission funded projects that focus on supporting teachers in kindergarten through second grade in all content areas. This funding is part of the federal Improving Teacher Quality Program, which is funded under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The CSU Long Beach project will provide funding for 42 teachers to participate in summer science institutes as well as small lesson design teams for the next three years. The project will also build on the work the districts have done to support English Language Learner's. The summer institute will be coupled with district trainings in English Language Development. It is our hope that the Science institute will allow participants to build upon the skills they develop during the ELD institute by providing a content (science) in which to practice ELD and SDAIE strategies with their students.
In addition, the project includes a significant research component, which will be coordinated by Drs. William Straits and Susan Gomez-Zwiep at CSULB. The research project will focus on the program's impact on student achievement and teacher growth. The current research plan will include both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. The quantitative piece will utilize district ELD and Language Arts assessments to measure growth in those areas as well as instruments developed specifically for the program to gauge both student and teacher growth in science. The qualitative research methods will provide a deeper, more 3-Dimensional picture of teacher growth during the three years they participate in the program.
We are very excited about the prospect of bringing K-2 teachers back into the work we have been doing in these districts. In the last several years, Science professional development has focused almost exclusively on 4-8 grade teachers. This was in part due to the funding requirements of the California Math and Science Partnership grants which have funded our recent work. This new grant will allow us to bring back some of the K-2 teachers who have worked with us in the past and build on the work we have done with upper elementary and middle school teachers.
