The project proposes to work with 116 teachers, including 96 teachers from six school districts in California and 2 each from ten other states. Each of the 20 teachers outside of California will in turn work with 100 other teachers in their states or districts. These are teachers at the middle school level, grades 3-8. The first year of the proposed three year project emphasizes the adaptation of curriculum materials which were developed over the years by the proposed staff and their colleagues. The goal of the first year of the project is to assess the value of the materials to the participating teachers and their school districts. The second year focuses on developing a program to train trainers to use and adapt the materials in order to multiply the effect of the program. The third year continues with the development of the leadership activities and disseminates the course materials and instructional strategies beyond the targeted districts. There is an active follow-up component in each of the years. There is to be eight days of concentrated instruction during each academic year and twelve days of instruction each summer. This proposal contains several excellent attributes. It is to be conducted at an excellent academic institution; the PI, as the guiding force behind the proposed activities, is a world renown scientist; the proposed staff have formed a community of scholars and are totally committed to the project goals; a very effective set of materials have been developed and improved over the years; the staff has been most successful in conducting workshops with the materials for teachers at the middle school level and above; as an extension of past efforts the team now intends to apply the materials and strategies at lower grade levels. Considering the outside contributions, beyond what is requested from the NSF, there is every indication that the project will receive support and attention from the educational and scientific communities and hence is worthy of funding as requested.
