GW AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS PARTNER TO STUDY EFFECTIVENESS OF HIGHLY RATED SCIENCE CURRICULUM UNITS FOR DIVERSE STUDENTS

GW’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development, Columbian College of Arts and Sciences and Montgomery County Public Schools Receive $5.2 Million Grant to Study How to Close Science Achievement Gaps

WASHINGTON – A team of researchers at The George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development and Columbian College of Arts and Sciences are collaborating with science educators at Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland on a five-year study entitled “Scaling Up Highly Rated Science Curriculum Units for Diverse Populations.” The $5.2 million grant is funded by the Interagency Education Research Initiative (IERI) and administered by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The purpose of the grant is to study the “scale-up” (or the transition from idiosyncratic adoption of curriculum units to broad, effective implementation across a large and diverse school system) of three highly rated middle school science curriculum units. Ultimately, the research intends to identify the conditions under which effective evidence-based interventions improve student learning and achievement when applied on a large scale.

“We are pleased to have a collaborative partnership with MCPS on a research project that can have national significance,” said Sharon Lynch, professor of secondary education. Lynch is serving as the grant’s principal investigator along with co-principal investigators Joel Kuipers, professor of anthropology and Curtis Pyke, assistant professor of secondary education. “Studying how to close achievement gaps in science and mathematics is a national priority and a crucial equity issue,” Lynch said.

The research is a follow-up to a 2001-02 NSF/IERI-funded planning grant, “Examining the Effects of Highly Rated Curricula on Diverse Populations,” that included a pilot study involving 10 middle schools with about 3,000 eighth-grade students. The current initiative will replicate the pilot study and then gradually implement three highly rated science units in MCPS while trying to accomplish the following objectives: 1) Study the effects on student achievement, motivation and engagement in order to close achievement gaps; 2) Use video analyses of student interactions, clarifying how these curriculum units actually function in classrooms with high levels of diversity; 3) Use the findings to work with MCPS science educators to improve student achievement; and 4) Study factors likely to have an impact on the curriculum units’ effectiveness.

MCPS provides a unique setting for the study, as it is a large and highly diverse metropolitan public school system. More than half of its 140,000 students are non-white; about one-third can be categorized as low socioeconomic status; 14 percent have identified disabilities and there are increasing numbers of international students whose first language is not English. While the school system is currently highly regarded and highly ranked, it must work hard to reach all students to retain its status. Support from MCPS science educators will be a critical component to the success of the initiative, as they will not only be implementing the curriculum units, but also will be part of the professional development and research teams.

“We are very committed to finding effective strategies to close achievement gaps and bring quality science instruction to all students,” said Michael Szesze, MCPS director of science education. “This project provides us the opportunity to explore the details that make differences.”

IERI was developed in 1997 by an interagency team of representatives from the U.S. Department of Education, the National Institutes of Health and NSF. A federally sponsored program of research that reflects the common interests of these three agencies, IERI focuses on student learning and achievement in reading, mathematics and the sciences. Funding for this study comes as a result of the research being evidence-based and built on a sound experimental design, criteria emphasized by the White House under the No Child Left Behind legislation, which passed in December 2001.

For more information on the grant, visit http://www.gwu.edu/~highsci/.
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