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Five Priorities for a Successful Future 1. More High-Quality Math and Science Teachers To make sure we have enough fully credentialed math and science teachers to meet our present and future needs, we have partnered with UTEP to enhance its Master of Arts in Teaching Mathematics program, develop a new Master of Arts in Teaching Science program and create a pre-master’s program for candidates who need college-level calculus or other prerequisites. MSP provides tuition support for teachers in participating districts who enter these programs.
Through MSP, we also support alternative certification program graduates as well as new teachers as they continue learning math and science content and pedagogy or pursue master’s degrees in those areas. In addition, MSP reaches out to high school teachers in magnet programs, encouraging them to enhance their skills in math and science teaching.
MSP also supports current science and math teachers in El Paso-area schools in their efforts to refine their teaching skills. As part of our staff development efforts, we have trained more than two dozen master math and science teachers to be full-time teaching coaches. These coaches work with high school teachers in their classrooms to build content knowledge and improve instruction to help students develop higher-level thinking and problem-solving skills.
2. Building Leadership Capacity To Improve Mathematics and Science Education We work with principals and district office staff to help them develop knowledge and skills to lead their schools toward math and science excellence. We offer workshop sessions that use case-study techniques to foster advanced skills in areas such as using and interpreting student achievement data, strategic planning, and content-based coaching. Periodic meetings with district leaders establish a shared vision of and support for partnership goals and activities. We also encourage school leaders to watch skilled teachers at work in their classrooms to see firsthand what good teachers do to motivate and engage students. Knowing this, principals can work more effectively toward programs and policies that support excellent teaching.
3. Providing a Rigorous, High-Quality Math and Science Curriculum, Fully Aligned, K–16 To ensure that El Paso students are given enriching math and science coursework throughout their school careers, MSP is developing curricula that guide instruction and assessment for all grade levels in key subjects. Among the first areas to be covered were K–8 math as well as Algebra I and II.
MSP also helped develop consistent policies for teaching and assessing these subjects across local districts. Students receive a sustained progression of challenging learning opportunities in math and science at every grade level.
4. More High School Graduates Going On to College Our local Think College Now initiative encourages El Paso students to set their sights on college early in their high school careers, to take the necessary college preparatory courses and to achieve at high levels. In addition, we work with high school counselors to encourage students to prepare for higher education. We have implemented the Infinity Project, a curriculum designed by UTEP’s College of Engineering to help high school students develop engineering-related concepts and skills.
5. Using Research To Learn More About What Works We partner with UTEP’s new Center for Research on Educational Reform, funded by MSP, to gather and analyze data on our programs and results, identify practices of high-performing schools, document lessons learned, continually refine our efforts, and share what we have gathered with other districts nationwide. Other research priorities include creating math-science teaching laboratories in the field, providing research training for our staff developers and awarding small research grants to teachers.
The El Paso Collaborative for Academic Excellence 500 W. University Avenue
El Paso, TX 79968-0683 © 2005 |