BATON ROUGE – The National Science Foundation, or NSF, has awarded $5 million to LSU to support and develop the Louisiana Math and Science Teacher Institute, or LAMSTI, a collaborative project involving 15 school districts within a 50-mile radius of the university and the Louisiana Department of Education. The institute gives science and math teachers from grades seven through 12 the opportunity to earn a specialized Master of Natural Sciences, or MNS, degree specifically designed to meet the needs of teachers. It aims to help Louisiana school districts enhance math and science teaching and learning.
"We have been able to secure generous funding from the NSF because of the success this program has achieved in a pilot that was funded by LaSIP, the Louisiana Board of Regents and the school systems of East Baton Rouge Parish, Iberville Parish and Ascension Parish," said grant principal investigator, James Madden, professor in LSU's Department of Mathematics and co-director of the Gordon A. Cain Center for Scientific, Technological, Engineering and Mathematical Literacy. "The seven math and science teachers who completed their degrees in summer 2007 and the 20 who are presently in the program have helped us create a program that understands the real demands of real classrooms and meets the needs that districts express. Faculty members from biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics have listened and have developed a program that bridges the world of university science and the classrooms of the schools in our region."
The institute will establish a professional master's degree program that develops science and math teacher-leaders, and it will work with districts to prepare graduates to work among teachers to increase student learning. The institute aims to improve the quality of math and science instruction for all students and to increase access to advanced courses.
Gary Byerly, Richard R. & Betty S. Fenton Alumni Professor of Geology and co-principal investigator of the new grant, directs the MNS program at LSU.
"This interdepartmental program is designed to allow development of innovative interdisciplinary curricula for teachers and other professionals wishing to obtain an advanced degree and training," said Byerly. "The program includes faculty from across the university, and for teachers it allows for broad-based training in math, multiple areas of science, statistics and educational theory and practice."
Additional co-PIs for the grant include Herman Brister, interim chief academic officer for the East Baton Rouge Public School System, and Ed Cancienne, superintendent of the Iberville Parish School Board.
"We are excited about our partnership with the LSU Cain Center; it will increase the content knowledge and pedagogy of our teachers in the areas of mathematics and science," said Brister. "Further, we are very confident that the NSF grant will increase our student performance scores in the aforementioned content areas."
Cancienne agreed, saying, "The Iberville Parish School District is delighted to be a core partner in LAMSTI, and we plan to use this opportunity to enhance our teaching staff and raise student scores in math and science."
While the Masters of Natural Science degree program in the LSU College of Basic Sciences was originally developed in the 1960s, this teacher-specific track supported by the NSF grant is a new product developed through statewide collaboration between both academia and local government.
"The Department of Education is ready to support the Louisiana Math and Science Teacher Institute in the manner we have discussed with the project directors over the last year," said State Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek. "I am looking forward to watching the institute develop into a powerful force for positive change in the state."
The academic program includes 30 semester hours of graduate credit and a master's thesis completed over a period of 26 months, requiring six weeks of coursework during each of three consecutive summers. Frequent contact is maintained during the two intervening academic years, but is scheduled to avoid interfering with teaching duties. Candidates must be experienced teachers and will enter the institute in cohorts so that each class can develop a genuine professional community. The thesis includes publishable scholarship in secondary mathematics and/or science education.
The institute develops teacher-leaders who can teach advanced placement, international baccalaureate and dual enrollment courses and relevant prerequisites. The leadership component includes a graduate level leadership seminar, with follow-up focusing on coaching, school improvement and data analysis.
"We seek to develop teachers with a deep understanding of the entire math and/or science curriculum, from the earliest grades though the highest as a coherent whole, teachers who are equally at home helping students make sense of the basics or reaching out to explore the unknown," said Madden. "We also aim to help teachers work productively with their colleagues, to increase knowledge in the whole school community and meld that community with the university community in a meaningful way."
In the summer of 2007, LSU began offering access to a special, teacher-focused track of the MNS degree through collaboration with its Gordon A. Cain Center for Scientific, Technological, Engineering and Mathematical Literacy and the East Baton Rouge Parish School System. The initial work focused on Glen Oaks Middle School. In 2008, LASIP, the Louisiana Systematic Initiatives Program, and the Louisiana Board of Regents supported the collaboration, allowing it to enroll a total of 27 students.
"In Louisiana, university scientists have been making important contributions to K-12 education for many years," said Sally Clausen, commissioner of higher education for the state of Louisiana. "The Board of Regents has supported such efforts though competitive grants. The Louisiana Math and Science Teacher Institute adds an important new layer to the efforts by higher education to support K-12 teachers by making content-rich professional master's degrees available."
The East Baton Rouge Parish School System currently pays for tuition for 21 teachers in an effort to attract and retain highly qualified math and science teachers to the area. The new NSF funding will allow the institute to fully develop as a degree program and provide funds to support 24 new students each year for the next four years.
NSF dollars, which support the teacher-specific track of the degree program, will enable the institute to provide generous fellowships to institute teachers while they pursue the MNS degree and will support faculty members who teach in the program in the summer. The funds will also support a rigorous external evaluation and a team of LSU researchers who will study the ways that the institute brings about changes in classroom practice and teacher networks.
Other LSU faculty members who have contributed significantly to this project include:
- Mike Cherry, chair of the LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy
- Dana Browne, professor of physics
- Andrew Maverick, Dr. Philip W. and Foymae Kelso West Distinguished Professor and chair of the LSU Department of Chemistry
- Bill Wischusen, associate professor of biological sciences
- Frank Neubrander, Demarcus D. Smith Alumni Professor of Mathematics
- Padmanabhan Sundar, professor of mathematics
- Peter Wolenski, Russell B. Long Professor of Mathematics
- Scott Baldridge, assistant professor of mathematics
- and many others
"LAMSTI showcases the commitment LSU and its faculty maintain toward education in Louisiana," said LSU Provost Astrid Merget. "A grant of this magnitude certainly proves the merit of what our researchers are working so hard to accomplish, and will benefit not only the university but teachers and students across the state."
More news and information can be found on LSU's home page at www.lsu.edu