Partnership for Student Success in Science (PS3)

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The Partnership consisting of nine Silicon Valley school districts and San Jose State University's (SJSU) Colleges of Engineering and Education is taking a regional approach to improving science education by building institutional capacity, instructional quality, and student achievement in a major urban region. Sustainable institutional changes are created to support high quality science education. Science teaching and learning, grades K-8, is improved through a continuum of university preservice preparation, new teacher induction, on-going inservice and leadership development for over 1300 preservice students and inservice teachers. Establishing a career spanning professional development model, which includes rich content and methodology workshops, provided by regional leaders for professional development, retains a pool of well-prepared K-8 science teachers. Elementary and middle school students experience exemplary inquiry and laboratory-based lessons linked appropriately to math, literacy, and technology resulting in higher achievement. Engineering faculty devote time as consultants in middle schools. While they contribute scholarship and content background they also learn by viewing the variety of teaching strategies that serve diverse student needs. Undergraduate engineering education is improved through close collaboration between engineers and teachers. Preservice instruction at San Jose State University is improved with the development of a new MA degree in Elementary Education with a focus on science, which should be readily transportable.