Teacher Professional Development in Mathematics and Science: Do the Policies Add Up?
Abstract
This project focuses on the professional development activities of mathematics and science teachers. Professional development has become a critical component of standards-based reform and other similar efforts targeted toward improving curriculum, instruction, and student achievement. To implement high standards in the classroom, teachers are required to develop new expertise and in-depth content-area knowledge, an especially challenging task in mathematics and science. Despite the central role of professional development in improving teaching and learning, we have little information about how state and district policy, school organization, and teachers' pre-service training relate to teachers' participation in professional development, and how the content covered in professional development is associated with content covered in teachers' instruction and subsequent student achievement.
We analyze three separate datasets to address these issues, the 1996 and 2000 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), the 2000 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), and 1996-1999 data from the Study of the Eisenhower Professional Development Program (SEPDP), in the context of elementary, middle, and high school mathematics and science. This research addresses four major issues in professional development. First, we will describe, at the national and state levels, mathematics and science teachers' participation in professional development and how this participation varies based on 1) pre-service training (e.g., whether a mathematics teacher has a major or minor in mathematics or math education) and 2) the degree to which participation varies based on the grade level and the courses that a teacher teaches. Second, we will examine how teachers' participation in professional development varies by school demographics (including school size, urbanicity, racial composition, and poverty-level), as well as organizational characteristics (e.g., climate, teacher involvement, principal's instructional leadership, curriculum and instruction program). Third, we apply a theoretical framework for analyzing 1) how state and district policies (e.g., math and science standards and high stakes testing) influence the type and extent of mathematics and science professional development that teachers choose and 2) how the relationship between state and district policy and professional development participation varies across teachers and schools. For the state-level analysis we will develop state-level indicators of policy (e.g., standards) and their weight (e.g., whether rewards and sanctions are attached) from sources such as the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), Education Week's Quality Counts, and the American Federal of Teachers, and merge this with the NAEP and SASS data to examine the relationships between state policies and teachers' professional development activities. Finally, we will examine the relationship between the content covered in professional development with the content covered in 4th and 8th grade classroom instruction, and its association with student mathematics and science achievement.
The "innovative and effective curricula, materials and assessments" required by standards-based reform efforts require mathematics and science teachers to cover different topics and higher-level performance goals. Our research will contribute to an increased understanding of how professional development plays a role in influencing teachers' content coverage, and the subsequent impact on student achievement. The results applicable to the relationship between state- and district-level policy and professional development will have implications for the development of stronger, more influential professional development reforms at the state and local level.
FUNDING AGENCY
NSF
TOTAL DOLLARS
$592,384
PROJECT PERIOD
6/1/2003-5/31/2008
INVESTIGATORS
PI: Thomas Smith
