9552492 Feldman The recent national reports establishing Standards in mathematics and science education. Current technology hold the promise of helping us to achieve this long-sought goal, which has eluded earlier generations of school reformers. Students and teachers now can have access to tools that communicate, work with data, model, visualize data, and retrieve information; to multimedia composition tools that enable them to express themselves creatively; and to intelligent tutors and content-focused software that assist them in efficiently mastering certain skills and information. Telecommunications networks have the potential to break down the traditional classroom limits and provide access to peers, experts, and information locally and globally. The potential for the technology to impact on the process of teaching and learning is immense, and the DoDDS proposal offers a well-designed situation to demonstrate this potential. The barriers to effective implementation of technology will be systemically addressed; access, technical support, and institutional commitment are part of the environment that DoDDS and the NSF are establishing. TERC proposes to address the issues of technology selection and professional development by mobilizing a partnership of TERC and national experts-leaders who have successfully introduced technology in schools similar to the DoDD schools-with DoDDS district staff and school staff. We will address technology selection through tapping the experience of this partnership to select the most appropriate technologies and specific applications. We will address professional development by designing and implementing a program that focuses on teachers learning new models to organize teaching and learning using technology. The goal of the project is to implement a range of technologies and pedagogies towards the goal of high student achievement in mathematics and science. To reach this goal ove r the three years, we will: * Mobilize a partnership of TERC, national experts and leaders in the field, and DoDDS * Develop effective Implementation Teams at each school * Select technology to support inquiry-based learning * Create and implement a plan of professional development for each school, coordinated across schools * Measure and monitor progress towards the goal of using technology to improve mathematics and science education The outcome of our work will be innovative models for excellence in mathematics and science education and effective strategies for the use of technology to implement these models. The example of the three Demonstration schools in developing and demonstrating these models will give us the research basis to understand better the role of technology in school reform, and options for DoDDS in scaling these changes to the full DoDDS system. ***
