SUPPORTIVE STRUCTURES FOR SUCCESSFUL SCIENCE TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The Omaha Public Schools (OPS) Science Office collaborates with community partners to facilitate a private foundation grant that seeks to improve science education by focusing on in-service, science teachers’ professional learning. The three goals of the K-12 Comprehensive Science Teaching and Learning Grant are to increase student achievement in science, increase teacher effectiveness, and to align and enhance science curriculum. At the end of year one, 83 teacher participants have taken graduate courses, attended professional conferences, or have participated in content immersion workshops based on personalized professional learning plans. All of the participating teachers complete an action research portfolio and are assisted by one of 11 science instructional coaches, who ensure that the teachers’ professional learning is translated into improved classroom practice.

The science instructional coaches’ preparation included training from the Institute for Inquiry affiliated with San Francisco’s Exploratorium, Discipline-Based Educational Research and other graduate courses through the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), The Art of Instructional Coaching Training and consulting from Elena Aguilar, and a series of Science Research Immersion Workshops by Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium and the University of Wisconsin-Extension affiliated with Upham Woods Outdoor Learning Center. The OPS K-12 Science Supervisor is the principal investigator and the UNO STEM Community Chair and the UNO Science Community Chair are the co-PIs for the grant effort. The shared-leadership model in OPS also includes two Elementary Supervisors and the Science Lead Teacher to ensure alignment among district goals, participants’ plans for growth, and partners’ agendas. In addition to the individuals already mentioned the grant advisory team includes district-level leadership, UNO leadership, Education Northwest conducts the grant evaluation.

Year one implementation data is described and preliminary. The data collected are from surveys, interviews, and observations, and standardized tests. Preliminary standardized test results suggested slight district-wide gains at elementary school (+2% of students meeting standards) and middle school (+3% of students meeting standards) while high school standardized scores remained unchanged. Although the initial trend data are encouraging the focus of this paper is on the three main structures of professional development opportunities within the grant, graduate course work, conference attendance, and content immersions. The authors will discuss the details of these structures and identify potential and valuable next steps for research.