The Math and Science Partnership of Southwest Pennsylvania is a strong and integrated collaboration linking broadly distributed suburban and rural school districts with an assemblage of small to medium sized colleges and universities in the region. Together they are committed to improving the understanding and knowledge breadth of Mathematics and Science for all students in K-16. The awardee and organizing principle for this Partnership is the Allegheny Intermediate Unit (AIU) a publicly funded service agency intermediary between local school districts and the State Department of Education. At the onset, the Partnership will include AIU and three other Intermediate Units (collectively encompassing 40 school districts) with four local institutions of higher education (Carlow College, Chatham College, Robert Morris University, and Saint Vincent College). In Years 4 and 5, the project will broaden by adding12 school districts and replicate the intervention efforts in two more Intermediate Units; in these latter two years a yet unselected college in the vicinity of these new K-12 additions will also be included. There are three other involved partners 1) the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, a critical participant for development of a Science Curriculum Framework as a counterpart to the existing Mathematics Curriculum Framework for the State of Pennsylvania, 2) the Carnegie Science Center, offering a staff member to serve as Science Project Director for the Partnership and organizing/hosting regular large meetings planned for partnership participants, and 3) the Rand Corporation, serving as an outside evaluator of the Partnership's activities. Over five years this award will serve 134,000 K-12 students and more than 8,500 higher education students, including pre-service teachers. Systems of different professional development opportunities will be offered and encouraged for in-service teachers and administrators.
The emphasis of this partnership is on improving the quality of the Math and Science Educator workforce. Working in concert, district and college level leadership cadres will develop a Science Curriculum Framework to be disseminated to schools along with an already developed Mathematics Curriculum Framework. For both curricula the intent is to present challenging courses, which focus on 6-8 big ideas for each grade, integrated in a coherent curriculum. In addition, data analysis tools and assistance will be provided to promote 1) annual planning tailored to a particular school district's needs and 2) tracking of developmental progress from initiation through broad implementation and institutionalization of the Partnership's intervention strategies to effect educational cultural change.
Disaggregated, district-specific data analysis for annual assessment and intervention planning, solidly developed benchmarking and measures of outcomes, and a planned outside evaluation by the Rand Corporation suggest that this partnership will make a strong contribution to the MSP literature. Scalability and replication in broader contexts will be tested with the addition of school districts and two more Intermediate Units in Years 4 and 5. This project may well prove to be an effective model for other states with educational service units and, more generally, for regions with broadly distributed school districts and local small to medium sized institutions of higher education.
