Welcome to the Imperial-Valley Science Project Please click on the topics in the left-hand margin to learn more about us and our programs. San Diego State University - Imperial Valley Campus Imperial County Science Project Executive Summary The Imperial Valley California Science Project Regional Center is a collaborative partnership between the Valle Imperial Project in Science (VIPS) and San Diego State University – Imperial Valley Campus. The establishment of a regional center of the California Science Project is an extension of an existing collaboration between the university (SDSU –IVC) and the fourteen school districts in Imperial County. VIPS and SDSU-IVC have successfully collaborated for the last three years in the establishment of a program of teacher enhancement in science education through an NSF funded Local Systemic Change Initiative. Over time, VIPS will serve approximately 1100 teachers in grades K-5 in 37 elementary schools in the county. Presently more than 75% of these teachers have received some form of initial training. There is a need to deepen the content understanding of these educators and to develop a process for teacher leadership in order to maximize the potential of this collaboration. A regional center of the California Science Project is the next step in the process of building capacity and teacher leadership in this poor, geographically isolated area of California. The proposed Imperial Valley – CSP regional site will specifically concentrate its focus on the development of teacher leadership in three low performing schools. It will also complement existing resources in the development of three training and demonstration centers in these low-performing schools. The core of the efforts of this CSP regional center will be based upon six guiding principles: 1) deepening academic content knowledge; 2) development of teacher leadership; 3) partnerships with and between low performing schools, SDSU-IVC and VIPS; 4) networks; 5) contracted services; and 6) evaluation. Academic Content: The CSP regional site will use 1998 and 1999 NSF – VIPS teacher survey data to provide standards based relevant standards based content module workshops, courses and institutes on topics such as animals, plants, electricity, forces and motion, and physics to deepen teacher content understanding. The content knowledge will be aligned to the K-5 science standards and will consider, utilize and model the optimal teaching strategies to achieve this goal. Instructors from SDSU’s San Diego Campus and local science professionals will teach the courses. University credit will be available and courses will count for electives in a Curriculum and Instruction Masters Degree (Project STAMP). VIPS resource teachers will provide in-classroom professional support to the participating teachers through coaching, modeling and questioning. After teachers have practiced the application of the content in their classrooms, sessions will be provided to debrief their experiences. Thus a process will be established that follows a model to deepen teacher content understanding aligned to standards, practice with professional in-classroom support and then provide opportunities for reflective thinking in grade level/span groups. Teacher Leadership: The CSP activities and efforts will be designed to engage teachers in developing approaches that are crucial to student success. The CSP activities will be collaboratively linked to existing and planned VIPS and SDSU-IVC activities to develop teacher leadership. This collaboration will lead to the development of three training and development centers at three low performing schools using a process based on the study of knowledge and understanding of California Science Content Standards academic content, effective instructional practice and current research on teaching and learning. Existing resources from VIPS and the SDSU-IVC STAMP program will supplement this effort. Study groups in student assessment, science notebooks, literacy and issues related to the performance of English Language Learners will be provided. Partnerships and Networks: The three training and demonstration schools will serve as the hub of a broad countywide network. The training and demonstration schools will model best standards based classroom practices. Existing resources and collaborative relationships between the 37 elementary schools in Imperial County, the VIPS leadership and SDSU-IVC will be expanded through the creation of these three training and demonstration schools. The existing MOU’s between the 14 districts participating in VIPS will be expanded. Contracted Services: The existing resources from VIPS will be used to provide teachers from the other 34 schools in Imperial County workshops, institutes and SDSU-IVC credit courses to deepen their academic knowledge and to tap into the CSP leadership network to improve student performance in their classrooms. Workshops and institutes will be provided to these teachers at the three low performing schools. Courses will be provided by SDSU-IVC. Evaluation: A Research Center has been established at SDSU-IVC. The primary goals of this center include: 1) to gather long-term data that will document the effects of teacher professional development and enhancement on standards-based student achievement in the Valle Imperial Project in Science; 2) to provide data to support standards-based instruction; 3) to study effective classroom practices with advance teaching and learning, especially for English Language Learners and students in low performing schools; and 4) to publish study results to advance the literature in this area. Inverness Research Associates is presently the external evaluator of VIPS. They are familiar with Imperial County and with the California Subject Matter Projects. An evaluation design will evaluate the longitudinal impact of the site program, including the participants and their students, especially English Language Learners. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses will be included in the project evaluation.