The Gilbert Elementary Science Program: The Infrastructure Needed to Sustain High Quality Instruction

Authors

Mark St. John, Katherine Ramage, Gerald Accurso, Heather Mitchell, and Becky Carroll, Inverness Research Inc.

Purpose

The Gilbert School District, with the support of a National Science Foundation Local Systemic Change (LSC) grant, has implemented a district-wide elementary science program that is now capable of serving all of the districts’ young students.

Over the past five years both the quantity and quality of elementary science teaching in Gilbert has increased dramatically. The LSC project has evolved into a strong district-owned elementary science program that is highly valued by both teachers and students. The NSF grant provided the district with an infusion of financial resources. These resources were essentially an investment in developing the district’s elementary science program. Now with NSF funding ending, the district has the opportunity to invest in a set of supports that can capitalize upon and leverage the investments made to date. These supports comprise what we call a program infrastructure and include three main components: 1) leadership; 2) curriculum and materials; and 3) professional development supports.

The most cost-effective way to sustain the program and the investment from NSF is for the district to now fund these three components. If the district can provide steady funding to ensure ongoing support in each of the three critical areas, then the high-quality science program now in place can be continued for many years to come.

See also the following reports on The Gilbert Elementary Science Program:

• A Case Study of Developing an Inquiry-based Science Education Program
• Providing Students With High Quality Science Learning
• Science for Writing and Writing for Science

Funded by

NSF Grant Number ESI9819467

Intended Audience

Science Educators, Professional Developers for Science, School and District Administrators, Reform Leaders, and general public.

Disclaimer

Any and all errors are claimed by the authors of this document, Inverness Research Associates

Date published

November 2006

Distribution Policy

Inverness Research Inc. grants permission to print and distribute copies.

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The Gilbert Elementary Science Program: The Infrastructure Needed to Sustain High Quality Instruction (pp. 9)