Rural STEM Education: Promising Strategies from Several California Counties
Since 2015, WestEd has provided research capabilities, technical assistance, and evaluation support for the California Partnership for Math and Science Education (the Partnership), a statewide initiative designed to increase access to high-quality math and science teaching and learning.
Through this ongoing work, WestEd has supported two communities of practice, one each for math and science, as well as work conducted by teams of education leaders collaborating to support math and science standards implementation and improve education and learning outcomes.
This brief provides information on rural education concerns that are found across the state of California and presents examples of rural California counties’ strategies for supporting math and science standards implementation.
Key takeaways emerged from WestEd’s study of this statewide initiative, chief among them that:
- While distance means that many rural regions have significant barriers to meaningful collaboration, technology and targeted investments in face time offer improved opportunities for teamwork.
- Some rural areas in California have been able to amplify their professional learning efforts by distributing leadership and responsibilities, and by thinking critically about ways that educators in different grade levels can learn from one another.
- Many of the promising strategies highlighted in the brief can be adapted and replicated at relatively low cost.
Additional reports in this series:
Illustrating Improvement: Noteworthy Practices to Inform California’s Math and Science Standards Implementation
Since 2015, WestEd has provided research capabilities, technical assistance, and evaluation support for the California Partnership for Math and Science Education (the Partnership), a statewide initiative designed to increase access to high-quality math and science teaching and learning.
Through this ongoing work, WestEd has worked with the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA), the California Department of Education (CDE), and the California State Board of Education (SBE), to run communities of practices for regional teams of educators since 2016. Additionally, regional teams have received two rounds of grant funding to plan and pilot standards implementation initiatives.
These innovative micro-grants were designed to test the idea that local innovation could be stimulated with relatively modest investments. They offered teams an opportunity to collaborate deeply on regional and county needs related to standards implementation, fashion projects in response to local challenges, and continue to learn from and incorporate their learning to improve and sustain their efforts beyond the grant funding period.
This report shares information about select initiatives’ current progress and strategies in order to create an opportunity for ongoing conversations about useful practices to support standards implementation. Specifically, the report focuses on a selection of noteworthy practices and tools crafted by project teams as they planned for and began to implement their second-year plans supported by the Partnership’s improvement grants.
Implementing California's Mathematics and Science Standards: Lessons Learned From Regional and County Collaboration
To help educators statewide establish implementation efforts to strengthen mathematics and science teaching and learning, the California Partnership for Math and Science Education launched in 2016.
The Partnership grew out of a shared commitment by the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association, the California Department of Education, and the California State Board of Education to develop a tiered approach to deepen statewide standards implementation support and coordination across all content areas.
The Partnership initiated two flagship efforts – two statewide Communities of Practice (CPs) and the establishment of 22 grant-funded collaboratives to promote the creation of more localized CPs or capacity-building projects.
WestEd has provided evaluation services over the course of the initiative and documents lessons learned from the collaboratives’ evolution and work.
This report focuses on 13 of the regional collaboratives and captures a snapshot of how efforts are building collaboration, capacity, and – ultimately – sustainability for mathematics and science standards implementation.
It highlights nine key lessons learned from regional collaborative efforts, including the importance of relationship-building and articulating a shared vision.
Developing Resources to Build Statewide Capacity and Cohesion for Mathematics and Science Standards Implementation
Two resource development programs received funding as part of an initiative to help build capacity for mathematics and science standards implementation across California: The Fostering NGSS Implementation Program and the Fostering Math Standards Implementation Program.
The programs drew on a diverse body of expertise and cross-regional and organizational leadership to encourage the creation of math and science resources that could both address common standards implementation challenges found statewide and promote equitable math and science opportunities for all students.
This resulted in education leaders (e.g., county office of education, content specialists, coordinators, and non-profit representatives) working together in three teams for science resources, and one team for math.
This brief focuses on these four teams’ experiences with planning, developing, and piloting resources aimed at reducing the variability in and building capacity for mathematics and science standards implementation across California.
It first examines aspirations and expectations for the resources, and perspectives on progress made toward aims. It then examines key processes and activities concerning leadership structures, planning and development, and piloting that teams engaged in to develop their products and attain their goals.
The brief concludes with key challenges and lessons learned, then provides a list of recommendations for funding or implementing further resource development efforts requiring statewide collaboration and scale.
What We Learned Preparing Teachers During the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact every facet of education. While the ongoing focus of the pandemic’s impacts centers on student learning, social-emotional needs, and adaptation to online instruction, significant questions remain about how the pandemic will affect the next generation of teachers.
Teacher candidates are currently facing the historic challenge of learning how to teach with little to no time in the physical classroom. In this archived webinar, presenters from four teacher preparation programs shared how they adapted their programs to meet the current climate and the learning needs of their candidates.
This archived webinar:
- Highlights the work of WestEd’s Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) grant partners, including universities, districts, and a county office of education, in their preparation of new teachers during the pandemic.
- Focuses on recruitment, clinical practice, professional development, and induction supports.
Presenters
Teacher Residency for Rural Education/Tulare County Office of Education (Recruitment):
- Donna Glassman-Sommer serves as the Executive Director for the California Center on Teaching Careers, located at Tulare County Office of Education. She was a Teacher, Principal, and Administrator for New Teacher and Leadership Development.
- Marvin Lopez, MBA, has been with Tulare County Office of Education for almost 20 years and is currently a Program Coordinator. Mr. Lopez is a key player in multiple state and federal projects, teacher preparation programs, and use of technology for teacher recruitment, selection, and retention.
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (Clinical Practice):
- Megan Guise is a professor of education at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Her grant work and research interests focus on enhancing coteaching implementation, developing effective models for professional development, and providing feedback on teaching.
- Sarah Hegg is a grants manager working with the School of Education at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Her grant work and research interests focus on defining & enhancing the coteaching model, increasing the diversity of teacher recruitment and developing professional development to support clinical practice.
California State University, Bakersfield/Citizen Scientist Project (Professional Development):
- Brittney Beck is an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education and Director of the Citizen Science Project at CSU Bakersfield. Her work builds the capacity of teachers and students to apply C-STEAM competencies to identify and address issues of community concern.
- Jesus Esquibel is the Assistant Director of the Citizen Scientist Project and Director of the Math Science Teacher Initiative at CSU Bakersfield. His work builds capacity for interdisciplinary C-STEAM curricula and pedagogy in K-12 and higher education contexts.
Fresno Unified School District (Induction):
- Traci Taylor has been working for Fresno Unified School District for over 16 years as an educator. Ms. Taylor currently serves as the Director of Teacher Development and is the current Project Director for multiple Residency Grants as well as oversees programs to support the growth and development of Veteran Teachers.
- Jeanna Perry has been working for Fresno Unified School District for over 15 years as an elementary and secondary teacher, Instructional Coach at an elementary school site, a Teacher on Special Assignment (TSA) working on developing district-wide professional learning on Common Core curriculum, and a Coordinator for the Fresno Teacher Residency Program.
Listen to the Audio Recording