This project is sponsored by the Regional Alliance for Mathematics and Science Education Reform, the Wright Center for Innovative Science Education, and the Northeast Regional Technology in Education Consortium.
The Regional Alliance for Mathematics and Science Education Reform at TERC, Cambridge, Massachusetts
The Regional Alliance supports K-12 mathematics, science, and technology (MST) reform in the Northeast and Islands region (New England, New York, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands). Funded by the U.S. Department of Education the Alliance provides professional development and technical assistance to schools, districts, and other reform efforts in the region. Three principles guide the work of the Alliance: 1) The Alliance should make it easier for educators to collaborate regionally in addressing significant MST reform issues. 2) Clients of the Alliance should be involved in the process of setting priorities for Alliance services. 3) Services must help local educators access the necessary resources to meet their reform needs. Adhering to these principles, the Alliance has created collaborative structures - Statewide Action Teams, Regional Networks, Electronic Services - and the Alliance Schools initiative, which provides direct assistance to a network of schools across the region.
Statewide Action Teams: Each state or island has a team of MST reform leaders who work with the Alliance to identify local and state priorities for MST reform services and activities. Team members are drawn from within the state or island and include K-16 educators, state education coordinators, informal science center directors and teacher association leaders. The teams support their local Alliance Schools; encourage participation in Alliance-sponsored initiatives; disseminate information to the K-16 community, and foster statewide collaboration among diverse MST reform efforts. An eighteen member Advisory Board, consisting of two representatives per state team, establishes regional priorities for resource allocation, ensures coordination across the region, and advises the Alliance staff. Regional Networks: To promote regionwide collaboration, the Alliance has six regional reform networks - communities of local and state educators that address key reform issues related to equity, K-16 collaboration, curriculum/instruction/assessment, public engagement, informal education, and technology. Each network has a dual mission: to extend expertise related to the given network's topic across the region, and to make this expertise equitably accessible. Led by a steering committee, each network provides services such as professional development institutes and sustained technical assistance. Network membership is free and open to anyone interested.
Alliance Schools: The Alliance is working with state departments of education, statewide systemic initiatives (SSI's), higher education faculty, and other MST reform leaders in every state or island to support a network of 37 schools. Representing a diverse group of elementary, middle and secondary schools, the Alliance Schools have committed to a long-term effort to improve their math and science programs and to increase student achievement. With state leaders and Alliance Schools educators, the Regional Alliance is undertaking an action research process to learn how to support and sustain local MST reform activities. Alliance staff members are providing technical assistance to Alliance School educators and their state partners and helping them access the resources of the regional networks, statewide action teams, TERC and other MST providers. Lessons from this action research activity will guide Alliance efforts to scale up local MST reforms in more schools across the region.
Electronic Services: The Alliance provides a variety of electronic services to educators through The Hub (http://www.ra.terc.edu). An important component of every regional network is an electronic discussion group that is open to anyone with access to Internet e-mail. Each statewide team has an e-mail listserv and its own Web page, which provides information about state resources. Alliance Schools have their own Web sites where they can develop and maintain information about their schools and programs. The Hub also has an extensive collection of on-line resources in key areas of MST reform.
The Wright Center for Innovative Science Education at Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts
With funding mainly from the Fondation H. Dudley Wright of Geneva, Switzerland, Tufts University maintains the Wright Center for Innovative Science Education as part of its Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Our emphasis is on innovation and dissemination, as articulated in our mission statement:
The Wright Center is dedicated to the creation and sharing of novel instructional techniques and interdisciplinary resources for pre-college teachers. Through is fellowships, workshops, seminars, and a variety of public-outreach activities, the Center provides leadership in the training and retraining of science teachers to use innovative methods to stimulate young minds.
To this end, our goals are fourfold:
The Wright Center, and its centerpiece Teacher Resource Library, are headquartered within the newly refurbished Science and Technology Center on Tufts' Medford campus. Here, among more than a hundred scientists and engineers, a group of about a dozen dedicated professional educators implement a variety of programs and activities of value to pre-college teachers of science and mathematics.
The
Northeast Regional Technology in Education Consortium
NetTech, the Northeast Regional Technology in Education Consortium, is a partnership designed to provide the vision and expertise needed to assist K-12 schools to plan, implement, evaluate, and refine effective educational uses of technology.
NetTech will offer technical assistance, create a forum for information exchange, develop collaborative efforts, support demonstration sites, and offer professional development to educators across the region.
NetTech is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement and is part of the Network of Regional Technology in Education Consortia.
The consortium of partners in NetTech will promote high quality education by sharing implementing a technology supported approach to teaching and learning which stimulates the minds and imaginations of learners and enhances the impact of educators. This partnership will provide the critical mix of planning, collaboration, technical assistance and professional development to build skills for the twenty first century.
NetTech will accomplish its goals through:
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