About PRISM
Strategy 1. Regional Level: Provide high quality professional development to P-12 teachers teaching Science and Mathematics . Teacher professional development is the top priority of all four PRISM regions to improve science and mathematics student achievement. Teaching quality will not improve without high student learning-standards and strategies and supports for teachers to help all students reach the standards. The following needs were identified during the planning phase:
- Organizing instruction around standards rather than around textbooks, units, or themes.
- Customizing instruction in ways that recognize differences in cultural backgrounds, learning styles, special needs of students to bring all students to high student-learning standards.
- Utilizing inquiry-based instruction.
- Using self-assessments and performance-based assessments of students in relation to the standards.
- Providing science and mathematics content for P-8 teachers.
- Getting students ready for key transition points – 1 st grade, 3 rd grade, middle school, high school, and college.
Strategy 2. State Level: Provide academic concentrations in Science and Mathematics for current P-8 Teachers through two new USG faculty consortia. To support the regional work described in Strategy 1, academic science and mathematics concentrations for current elementary and middle grades teachers will be offered by two USG higher education consortia, one in mathematics and one in the sciences. Each consortium is developing an inquiry-based four-course sequence that integrates academic content knowledge, evidence-based pedagogical knowledge, and teacher craft knowledge to enable current elementary and middle grades teachers to deepen children's understanding of science and mathematics.
Strategy 3. Regional Level: Engage higher education and P-12 faculty in learning communities.PRISM will establish discipline-based, school-university Learning Communities in which practitioner knowledge is converted into professional knowledge through science and mathematics school and college faculties experimenting and refining a set of best practices on the teaching and learning of science and mathematics, and then using the best practices to inform their practice.
Strategy 4. Regional Level: Influence the quality of teacher preparation through changing how Science and Mathematics are taught to future P-12 teachers. An Institute on the Teaching and Learning of science and mathematics will be established for higher education science and mathematics faculty and administrators. Participants will learn why and how to adopt their courses to an inquiry-based approach, and what are the current best practices in science and mathematics teaching and learning.
Strategy 5. State Level: Revise the Regents' Principles for the Preparation of Educators for the Schools to include a 12- semester hour integrated science sequence for elementary teachers. In 1998, the USG adopted a new policy for teacher preparation requiring future elementary teachers to complete a four-course sequence in mathematics, in addition to the freshman level mathematics course required of all college students (Board of Regents, 1998). This policy requires no such sequence in science. (Aspiring elementary teachers complete only the two-course science sequence required of all college freshmen.)
Strategy 6. State Level: Initiate new policies that provide incentives and improved working conditions for teaching SM in P-12 schools. From the self-assessment, solutions to five problems were targeted in order to increase teacher recruitment, assignment, and retention in science and mathematics (Governor's Education Reform Commission, 2000):
- Low production of science and mathematics teachers in Georgia's colleges and universities, particularly from minority groups and from individuals interested in teaching in hard-to-staff (urban and in remote rural) schools in Georgia.
- Low yield of science and mathematics teachers prepared for entry into the profession.
- Most school administrators are not prepared (and do not know how) to lead teachers toward achieving the State's accountability expectations, leaving teachers highly frustrated and vulnerable.
- Teacher preparation and professional development have not resulted in school improvement.
- There is a direct correlation between teacher work environments and teacher shortages, declining teacher applicant pools, low teacher morale, and high teacher attrition rates, particularly in hard-to-staff schools.
Strategy 7. Regional Level: Implement regional strategies to recruit science and mathematics teachers.
- Through the Georgia Teacher Quality Plan, Georgia State University (and three other institutions) piloted the implementation of an Advanced Academy for Future Teachers for academically talented high school students in an effort to attract these students into teacher preparation programs. Within the Metro Atlanta PRISM region, the Advanced Academy for Future Teachers will be refined to focus on recruiting students to become teachers in science and mathematics for Atlanta Public Schools.
- Northeast Georgia PRISM Region: Northeast Georgia will target undecided arts and sciences majors already attending the University of Georgia and Georgia Perimeter College and second career individuals wishing to become teachers. The program will draw from lessons learned through a pilot program in Georgia 's Teacher Quality Plan.
Strategy 8. State Level: Raise and align SM student-learning standards and curriculum, pre-school-two years of college (P-14). The Quality Core Curriculum (QCC) is Georgia 's P-12 curriculum. It includes specific course-by-course and grade-by-grade objectives for teachers. School districts must use the QCC unless they demonstrate that they have higher standards. Most school districts use the QCC. The external audit of the QCC (summarized on page 7) makes clear that school districts will have difficulty increasing student achievement in science and mathematics when the curriculum, instruction, and current teacher professional development is guided by inadequate student-learning standards. Under the leadership of two PRISM senior personnel, new state science and mathematics student-learning standards will be developed and the QCC will be revised to correspond with the new standards. The student-learning standards will be developed, Pre-K through two years of college (P-14) with a goal for a more rigorous curriculum in SM aligned with expectations for college. The new standards will provide the continuity and rigor—aligned with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards and the National Science Education Standards (NSES)—necessary to develop specific grade and course-level objectives in the P-12 SM curriculum (NCTM, 1996, National Research Council, 1996). As a companion to PRISM, DOE will develop new P-12 assessments, aligned with the new standards and curriculum. PRISM will draw upon the existing Post-Secondary Readiness Enrichment Program (PREP), a supplemental USG program to increase the support toward college readiness of 7 th -12 th graders who need extra help to meet the higher expectations. PREP is a companion to PRISM.
Strategy 9. State Level: Conduct a public awareness campaign of the need for all P-12 students to have access to, to be prepared for, and to succeed in challenging courses and curricula in science and mathematics . One of the reasons Georgia 's SM QCC has not conformed to NCTM and NSES standards is the relatively low level of educational aspirations and limited understanding of the consequences of low-level curricula in many parts of Georgia (a lesson learned through previous P-16 work). To raise aspirations, PRISM will include a public awareness campaign to garner community support for all P-12 students to complete challenging science and mathematics curricula. The campaign will target: Parents, P-14 students, guidance counselors, P-12 teachers, principals, superintendents, and college science and mathematics faculty. It will emphasize: 1) The benefits of : Students meeting high P-14 student learning standards at grades K, 3, 5, 8, 12 and 14 in science and mathematics in order to be promoted to the next grade level, to graduate from high school, and to complete two-years of college; students being “college ready” when they meet the Level 12 standards; requiring all middle and high school students to complete challenging science and mathematics curricula so that they will be adequately prepared for college success; having support systems in place and providing extra time to students who need them to reach the high P-14 student learning standards; providing every student (beginning in 4 th grade) with a “school to career” plan that includes college exploration and post-secondary planning activities and programs in science and mathematics; and information on college admissions tests, registration dates, how to prepare for, and how test scores are used. 2) The consequences of : Curricular tracking in science and mathematics that results in a disproportionate number of low-income and minority students placed into low-end courses in high school, ability groups in elementary school, and special education; assigning less prepared and the newest science and mathematics teachers to the P-12 students who need them most; and assigning teachers to teach science and mathematics who are not prepared in those fields.
Strategy 10: Provide a reward structure in universities to encourage faculty members to sustain involvement in improving science and mathematics teaching and learning in P-12 schools.