AAAS

AAAS Trains Leaders in Local Science Education

Science Magazine

By Molly McElroy
Edited by Edward W. Lempinen
AAAS News and Notes
Science Magazine

After 3 years of intensive evening classes, weekend meetings, and never giving up a day job in the classroom, 48 Washington, D.C., teachers graduated this spring from a AAAS cosponsored program that provided new depth to their knowledge of science and math and prepared them to be educational leaders at their middle schools.

"I'm amazed by how much you can learn after you think you've already learned something," said Ronald Tate, a D.C. teacher at Lemon G. Hine Junior High School. Last month, Tate and his colleagues received master's degrees from the College of Professional Studies at George Washington University for their participation in the program.

"You're ready to go forward and accomplish something that is truly remarkable," Shirley Malcom, head of Education and Human Resources at AAAS, told the graduates, their families, and other supporters during a 17 May ceremony at AAAS. "With this, there truly is no child left behind."

The programs, DC ACTS (DC Advancing Competencies in Technology and Science) and DC FAME (DC Fellows for the Advancement of Mathematics Education) are filling a critical need, said Ali Eskandarian, senior associate dean at George Washington University's College of Professional Studies. "Science and math education at the K—12 level is deficient nationwide, but the situation is particularly dire in D.C."

For DC ACTS graduate Gloria Allen, the program offered a way to obtain a solid science knowledge base. "Science is constantly changing and updating itself," said Allen, who teaches 5th-grade science at Plummer Elementary School in southeast D.C. "As science teachers, we need to be as timely as possible."

Today's science teachers, trained as generalists, have to rely on textbooks that aren't always accurate to get their science background, according to Allen. With the training provided by DC ACTS, Allen and her peers are better able to evaluate the material they see in books, she said.

DC ACTS focused on a different science subject—physical science, earth science, and life science—each year of the program.

Middle-school science teachers are held accountable for teaching each of those subjects, yet many teachers don't have a formal education background in some of the topics.

By strengthening their understanding of the material, "they can move more easily between subjects that they're required to teach each year," said Joan Abdallah, AAAS director of DC ACTS.

With greater skills and confidence provided by the program, teachers are better equipped to review curricula, provide leadership throughout their school districts, and discuss the best ways to increase student achievement.

Like DC ACTS, the mathematics program DC FAME aims to deepen the knowledge of middle-school math teachers. But the DC FAME program was—and is—more about developing leadership skills in teachers. "It's a genuine leadership program," said Florence Fasanelli, director of DC FAME with AAAS Education and Human Resources. "And you can't be a leader unless you understand what you're teaching," she said.

The program required teachers to do extensive writing in term papers and personal journals, chronicling their attitudes about mathematics. In his final paper, DC FAME Fellow Sam Reheard described how learning a topic deeply leads to new discoveries. "There are limits to what my mind can discover and process in a day," wrote Reheard, a mathematics teacher for special education classes at the KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) in D.C. "Reflection is an essential part of the learning process."

Before DC FAME, Reheard had taken formal math courses but had no classes on how to be a math teacher. "I felt something was missing," he said, voicing a common reason that participants enrolled in the program. "The more I know, the more confident I am."

A new cohort of DC FAME Fellows, funded by the State Education Agency for D.C. Public Schools, will begin a 3-year program on 30 June. DC ACTS, supported by the U.S. Department of Education, is pursuing new funds to welcome a second cohort in fall 2008.

Friday, June 27, 2008 Back