Assessing the Emergence of Partnership
Goals and Rewards- While participating in writing the proposal and over the course of the first year of the project, initial partners developed their understanding of common goals of the project. During the first year partners developed a set of five principles that became the working backdrop of beliefs within which the project would work toward achieving the goals. Although initially some higher ed. and K-12 participants were "going along for the ride", by the end of the first Summer Academy, by far most of the participants were on board with respect to the goals and principles. With some minimal financial support for each individual, the rewards have been found mostly in learning of content and research-based pedagogy and in the collaboration among colleagues at all levels of K-16 education.
More specifically, since initiation of the project, all stakeholder groups (teacher leaders, administrators, and higher ed. faculty) reported better science education happening in their classrooms (K-12 and pre-service science classes.) Teacher leaders and HE Faculty report increased collaboration, and school administrators report a greater better understanding of what constitutes science education. Most suggest the rewards are intrinsic and benefits of participation outweigh costs. Shifts from previous years are increased satisfaction, greater alignment of personal and professional goals and more general desire and concern for sustainability of resources and network opportunities for collaboration.
Resources and Support- Sharing of material and financial resources has mostly been one-way, from NCOSP leadership at WWU out to the partner institutions. It appears there may be limited genuine partnership among institutions in the sense of two-way and equitable exchange. This may be due to the historically hierarchical relationship among research institution, community colleges, and K-12 schools. On the other hand, there is substantial and significant support among individual participants at same and different institutions. Teachers and school administrators generally express greater support of each other than early in the project, thus growth there. Higher ed. participants at all the partner institutions and teacher leaders from the twenty-eight school districts have nearly unanimously expressed appreciation of contributions and support from each other to effect successful implementation of partnership activities. The collaboration among individuals has resulted in a history of positive working relationships between science educators in the region (K-16) that primes them for future collaboration and perhaps for building a "true partnership" (of two-way sharing of resources) among institutions in the future. The individuals are needing and looking for mechanisms that will permit and sustain collaboration. Projects such as NCOSP represent unique opportunities for collaboration between K-12 and HE, which are not readily sustainable otherwise, because there are presently few mechanisms for collaboration in place within the present system.
Communication- There was largely one-way flow of communication between institutions. The web site and email have contributed to getting the word out from leadership at WWU to the other institutions. There was two-way communication between individuals, particularly within institution. Teachers perceived increased utility and timeliness of partnership communication. Administrators felt valued in the sense of having their concerns and ideas heard. Connections are through individuals (e.g. administrators connect to NCOSP mostly through their teacher leaders, teacher leaders mostly through TOSAs, higher ed. faculty to each other within a department), which can be tenuous and not robust when speaking in terms of systemic change and regional reform among institutions.
Change- NCOSP is a partnership created to be a catalyst for systemic reform in science education. Western Washington University, the prime institution, has seen some institutional change. Science Education Methods Courses and advising of prospective teachers as well as the collaboratively developed undergraduate science courses have changed to be more coordinated and consistent with each other. Community College Faculty report institutional change in the adoption of the newly developed General Undergraduate Required science courses developed within the NCOSP collaboration. There is only very preliminary evidence that there is sustainable institutional change in the partner K-12 schools.
There have been substantial and significant changes in the practice of individuals at the institutions. Higher Ed. faculty report that they are changing their practice in teaching their other science courses. They suggest they have modified their practice to be more in line with implications from How People Learn. As of this fall over ninety professional learning communities (PLCs), planned and conducted by NCOSP Teacher Leaders, have been created in the K-12 schools and are using NCOSP developed professional development tools with other teachers of science in their school. Efforts with these "tier 2" science teachers is to foster development of their assessment and instructional skills, to deepen their content understanding, and to promote on-going collaboration among teachers of science. So far, results of the partnership survey underscore the difficulty of expanding partnership involvement beyond the first tier of participation. The approximately one hundred and sixty "tier one" participants (teacher leaders) in the NCOSP activities of the last four years have benefited from their participation. Teacher leaders are getting support for their collaboration activities with tier 2 teachers this year, but it remains to be seen the extent to which mechanisms can be created to sustain such collaborations beyond the end of the grant.
Postscript- NCOSP represents a partnership in which there have been benefits for all partners through open sharing of responsibility, expertise and efforts. Higher Ed. faculty have benefited greatly from their interaction with K-12 teachers as well as among themselves. They have a better understanding of the day-to-day struggles of the work of K-12 teachers, and they report learning more techniques from K-12 teachers for teaching diverse students in the preservice GUR and in other science courses. Teachers and Higher Ed. faculty have learned science content out of their area of prior study. Some administrators and teacher leaders have learned to trust each other and work together to improve instructional leadership in schools and to support other teachers as they learn. All partner groups have learned research based pedagogical practices from preparing and teaching together and from co-developing tools they can use for professional development of other K-12 science teachers and other Higher Ed. faculty. The sustainability of the NCOSP partnership beyond the present NSF funding and the heroic efforts of individuals is still an open question.
