Original Vision

The Delaware Science Coalition LSC, funded in 1997, began as a coalition of nine school districts with the Delaware Department of Education (DDOE) and the Delaware Foundation for Science and Mathematics Education (DFSME, representing the business community). Based on early successes in impacting elementary students in the original districts, the program expanded in three years to cover grades K-8 and to include all sixteen school districts in the state.

The vision of the LSC is to improve the teaching and learning of science for all children in grades K-8 so that they can meet the high expectations of the Delaware Science Standards. These Standards, adopted in June 1995, defined what all children need to know and be able to do in science in order to be prepared to lead full and productive lives as citizens of the 21st century.

The LSC, now completing its sixth year, currently serves ca. 2500 K-5 teachers and 500 grade 6-8 teachers in 80 elementary schools and 36 middle schools in rural, urban and inner city locations. It reaches more than 70,000 students. The 6 million dollar grant provided by NSF funding has been leveraged by a factor of about four through funding from the state and local districts and support from business. Elementary students who were excited about their new hands-on science program named the program the "Smithsonian" after they learned that their teachers attended a 1995 Leadership Institute at the National Science Resource Center (NSRC) located at the Smithsonian Institution. This name has now come to represent the preferred model in Delaware for improving education in all disciplines.

The expectations articulated in the Standards for what science students in grades K-8 should know represented a major stretch goal for Delaware schools. The reality was that little science was taught in the elementary grades and then mainly as an optional (i.e., less important) subject. Many children, especially special education students, were routinely excluded from science classes. There was no established process to provide large numbers of elementary teachers with the training they needed; and there was no source of classroom materials. The little (and rather unreliable) data available on student achievement showed that Delaware consistently performed below the national average on NAEP and had a gap between the achievement of whites and minorities. A strongly embedded culture of district autonomy and competition limited the extent and degree of teacher collaboration across the state.

The goals of the LSC (based on the NSRC systemic change model) were to:

• Develop and implement an inquiry-based curriculum that embeds science as an integral part of the elementary curriculum and provides all children in grades K-8 with the opportunity to meet the Delaware Science Standards.
• Create a materials supply system that ensures teachers have access to the classroom materials they need to effectively implement the curriculum.
• Provide all teachers with ongoing professional development to acquire the skills and knowledge needed to prepare students to meet the Delaware science standards.
• Establish and nurture a network of teachers to lead and sustain the science reform effort at the school and district level.
• Establish a comprehensive assessment system aligned with the curriculum to measure progress and to inform and guide teachers and administrators in continuously improving student achievement.
• Build and sustain a process to ensure school, community and administrative support for systemic improvement of science education and of continued improvement of student achievement in science.

SUSTAINABILITY
Sustaining the LSC was of concern in the original proposal. Our initial strategy was to build broad ownership in the project by a wide range of key stakeholders including the state, the school districts, the legislature and the business community. In the fourth year, Coalition partners developed a strategic plan to sustain the Coalition and all key elements of the project. This plan expanded the size of the leadership team working at the state level with full state support, shifted funding responsibility for the District Science Specialists to the school districts and committed the Coalition to expand to Grades 9-12.

NEXT