The Boston Science Partnership (BSP) is comprised of the following core partners: the Boston Public School (BPS) System, Northeastern University (NEU) and the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMB), as the lead organization. The Harvard Medical School and the College Board participate as supporting partners. This Partnership comes together to significantly enhance student achievement and teacher quality in grades 6-12 science. The BSP vision is that challenging science courses will be taught by highly qualified teachers; advanced science courses will be accessible to all BPS students; university faculty will work side-by-side with K-12 teachers in science education reform; and structures will be in place to promote student achievement in grade 6 through graduate level in science and engineering. The goals of the Partnership are to raise BPS student achievement in science, significantly improve the quality of BPS science teachers, increase the number of students who succeed in higher-level courses in science and who are admitted to and retained in university science and engineering programs, improve science teaching both in BPS and at the universities, and institutionalize these changes so that the Boston Science Partnership and its work will be sustained.
Distinctive strategies that support BSP in obtaining its goals include: --Combining the College Board's vertical teaming approach with BPS' own Collaborative Coaching and Learning (CCL) model, which requires teachers to inquire into their own and each other's teaching practices in an effort to improve student achievement; --Collaboration by science professors and BPS science teachers to develop graduate courses that contextualize content in support of the specific curriculum that teachers are expected to deliver in BPS classrooms; and --Joining together of engineering faculty and BPS science teachers to interpret the technology/engineering strand of the Massachusetts Science Frameworks in light of the national technology frameworks, and to create a graduate course in engineering that prepares teachers to teach this material as part of the science curriculum.
Evaluation measures associated with project implementation will be complemented by research efforts intended to answer questions such as: What are the institutional capacities and barriers of UMB and NEU that will advance or inhibit the sustainability of the innovations they have initiated within their own institutions through the BSP? What are the institutional capacities and barriers that explain the abilities of UMB and NEU to achieve authentic and sustainable collaborations with each other in order to improve science teaching and learning within BPS? How do the strategies that UMB and NEU use to manage their capacities and barriers to change enhance the field's understanding of and ability to achieve sustainable change within institutions of higher education? What are the roles that vertical teaming, contextualized courses, and the use of the CCL model play in the development of high quality teachers? In what ways does science instruction in university science courses improve as a result of science professors' a) increased knowledge about how students learn and K-12 science education including the National Science Education Standards, and b) observations of high-quality K-12 science teachers and participation in debriefing discussions about inquiry-based teaching practices based on how students learn? The BSP research agenda will be carried out jointly by UMB and the Education Development Center (EDC) with the Program Evaluation and Research Group (PERG), Lesley University, providing leadership for project evaluation.
The work of the BSP has the potential of impacting 14,759 students in grades 6-8, 18,305 students in grades 9-12, 186 full-time science teachers, and 256 teachers who teach science part of the day.
(BSP) was a Targeted Math Science Partnership project focused on increasing student achievement in science in Boston Public Schools (BPS). The Partnership brought together three core partners, University of Massachusetts Boston (UMB), Boston Public Schools, and Northeastern University (NEU), and several additional partners: Roxbury Community College, Harvard Medical School, The College Board, and Education Development Center (EDC). Project evalution was conducted by the Program Evaluation Research Group of Lesley University. Noyce funding through supplements began a master teacher program model, the Science Education Fellowship, which developed leadership and professional advancement for three cohorts of science teachers. The BSP accomplished its goals through four main strategies: (1) Contextualized content courses developed and taught collaboratively by middle and high school science teacher leaders and STEM faculty. (2) Collaborative coaching and learning in science (CCLS) as a school-based professional learning community model. (3) Vertical planning/teaming, involving STEM faculty and science teachers in building a coherent science curriculum that would include transition to undergraduate coursework. (4) A collection of additional support strategies developed for specific populations, including cross-institutional freshman science course articulation teams, AP science support programs for students and teachers, STEM education seminars at higher education institutions, initiatives to advance STEM education scholarship in promotion and tenure, and community college STEM pipeline efforts. Goal 1: Raise student achievement in science. BPS students demonstrated science achievement gains correlated with participation in BSP professional development by their teachers. For example, on the statewide 8th grade science assessment, there was a statistically significant relationship between BSP participation and increased student passing rates, and greater participation by teachers corresponded to higher passing rates of students. Examination of state assessment scores of all middle and high school students in the district showed that the percentage of students passing the biology, chemistry, and unified science tests was significantly higher for those whose teachers had taken part in BSP professional development. The combination of participating in content-focused professional development and doing so before students take the test produced the most positive results. Goal 2: Significantly improve the quality of Boston Public Schools (BPS) science teachers. State licensure regulations and the implementation of No Child Left Behind in the school district and the state both changed over the course of the project. EDC researchers conducted a complex research study on trends in teaching within and outside of licensure in science disciplines among teachers in Boston during 2005 to 2008. During these years, teaching outside of licensure dropped by 18%, while teaching within licensure increased by 24%. The changes are largely attributable to BSP efforts. Goal 3: Increase the number of students who succeed in higher-level courses in science, and are admitted to and retained in university science and engineering programs. The project directed support toward AP science teachers and students through AP summer institutes, collaboratively organized with the College Board, AP science focused district-wide peer-facilitated CCLS for AP science teachers, and three programs for AP science students in the entire district: summer bridge programs for rising AP students, monthly AP labs on university campuses, and a centrally-held AP practice exam. Student enrollment in AP science courses in the district doubled between 2005-9, AP science enrollment gaps between Asian and White vs. African American and Latino students were narrowed toward district enrollment representation, and passing rates on AP science exams rose. SAT science subject tests were taken by more than twice as many students in 2009 than in 2005, with consistent increases in test taking and mean scores across the years. Larger numbers of students applied to, were accepted to, and matriculated into science/engineering degrees at both universities. Goal 4: Improve science teaching in BPS and at the universities. Almost 60% of all STEM faculty at UMB participated in the BSP. STEM faculty reported using more inquiry-based teaching methods informed by working side-by-side with BPS science teachers, and BPS teachers reported more use of research-based science pedagogy. The project aimed to retain high quality science teachers in the district. EDC researchers followed the 262 science teachers hired in the district between 2003-04 and 2005-06. Three years later, BSP participants were 4.6 times more likely to stay in the district than nonparticipants. Goal 5: Institutionalize changes so that the Partnership and its work will be sustained. Retention of science teachers in BPS became so strong that there are few new science postings (rare for an urban district), and all of the content courses became permanent offerings at both universities. Institutional changes include: a strengthened and more dynamic science department and higher visibility for science education in schools (BPS); greater university-wide interest, involvement, and reputation for STEM education issues, and tenure and promotion changes to support STEM education work (UMB); and the creation of a center for STEM education and a master's program for middle school science teachers (NEU).
