The NRC proposes to hold a one-day workshop focused on the lessons learned from past large-scale reform initiatives in STEM and apply that knowledge to the myriad state networks currently underway as a result of the increased national focus on STEM education. The role of networks in identifying, scaling up, and sustaining STEM reforms is critical as states move quickly to identify strategies and approaches that will be useful in Race to the Top proposals. The proposal is an appropriate RAPID because the findings generated from the workshop will be used by the field, US Department of Education and NSF to advocate for approaches with the strongest evidence base in a policy environment that is both shifting and moving quickly.
A One Day Workshop at the National Research Council Award 1055810 C. Jean Moon, Senior Scholar, Principal Investigator and Study Director Natalie Nielsen, Senior Program Officer This one-day workshop focused on lessons learned from past large-scale reform initiatives in K-12 STEM education, with a specific focus on how states responded to those intended reforms. In addition, the workshop explored the intellectual history in large-scale STEM reform and the relevance of this history in guiding current large-scale reform. As a one-day NRC workshop with no associated product, there are no findings to report. Individual presenters and the NRC steering committee members provided a synthesis of large-scale reforms in K-12 STEM education and drew a number of conclusions that are captured on a video recording of the workshop located at the following web address: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/Large_Scale_Reform_Homepage.html As part of workshop preparation the NRC steering committee organized a planning template which captured large scale STEM reform across various "eras", starting with work in the 1980s that resulted from the 1983 Nation at Risk report, continuing with the State Systemic Reform Initiatives undertaken by the National Science Foundation in the 1990s, followed by No Child Left Behind, and including Race to the Top as part of President Obama’s current education reform program. Across these "eras" the workshop examined different components of state-based educational systems from a reform perspective. Among the examples of state system components identified by the steering committee were policy instruments, theories of action upon which past and current reforms were based, standards, capacity building activities in the form of professional development, teacher education along with the implementation of statewide networks and alliances. The strong role of local contexts in the delivery of education reform was a consistent theme throughout the workshop as was an understanding of what "scale" may mean in a reform process. Workshop presentations suggested that STEM reform across the states from the 1980s forward offers significant diversity relative to state goals, means for achieving those goals, and the strength of the data measuring impacts on different system components. Likewise, challenges to sustaining large scale reforms were discussed as were means for increasing the likelihood of sustaining reforms capable of guiding multiple system components, structures, and actors over time. An example of another theme found in the workshop was the role of standards-based accountability as a government-based effort (both at the federal and state level) to improve student outcomes and to address equity in STEM education. Likewise, the role of non-governmental state-based networks as a means of creating needed infrastructure composed of distributed expertise and resources to address the complex challenges present in system-based reforms was addressed. A paper commissioned for the workshop and written by steering committee member Tom Corcoran addresses the challenges and tensions around changing the technical educational core of education (instruction, curriculum, and assessment) through large-scale reform efforts. This paper is located at the project web address: www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/Large_Scale_Reform_Homepage.html Individuals appointed to the steering committee by the NRC were: Mary Kay Stein, Chair, University of Pittsburgh Mark Berends, University of Notre Dame Jeanne Century, University of Chicago Tom Corcoran, Teachers College, Columbia University Brian Rowan, University of Michigan Patrick Shields, SRI Iris Weiss, Horizon Research Invited workshop experts who made presentations and served as panel members throughout the day were: David Burns, Ohio STEM Learning Network Margaret Goertz, University of Pennsylvania Laura Hamilton, Rand Corporation Michael Knapp, University of Washington-Seattle William Penuel, University of Colorado-Boulder Robert E. Slavin, Success for All Foundation Brenda Turnbull, Policy Study Associates Carl Weiman, Office of Science and Technology Policy
