Reflections from the end:

As we find ourselves with 80% of our project time behind us, we are astonished by both how much has been accomplished and how much remains to be done. There have been major changes that have impacted our project's implementation. We knew our district was entering a time of rapid growth. We grossly underestimated the magnitude of that growth and the resulting systemic pressure throughout the district structure. Moderate growth in our state allows flexibility for program enhancement. Extreme growth is more commonly reflected by program pressures. In our case, we had anticipated completing the baseline unit professional development by the end of year two. We anticipated the vast majority of our time from that point being focused on advanced professional development. While we are pleased with the advanced professional development most of our teachers have experienced, tremendous time and energy are still required each year for new teachers or those who have changed grade levels. Each new school opening has resulted in a domino effect of grade level changes across the existing schools.

Other unanticipated changes were the retirement of the superintendent as well as the science materials manager. Illness and injury among the other project staff also required adjustments. Our vision and commitment were critical in allowing us to persevere during transitional and difficult periods.

Developing partnerships has been a major challenge. Our deepest and most currently successful partnerships are with other school districts and the institutions of higher learning across the state. We would like to take credit for this, but in fact Arizona's mandates and policies, as well as national pressures, have probably been the real catalyst. For whatever reason, this science education network continues to become stronger and stronger. Our least successful partnerships have been with local businesses. After many promising starts, most of our contact businesses were heavily hit by the economic downturn. As a result, many of our individual contacts were shifted into positions of new responsibility. Their businesses' ability to provide the personal time and energy has become limited. Although many of the projects with these partnerships are currently on hold, the shared vision remains.

Partnerships with scientists were our most devastating failure. Early on we committed to working with a particular scientist as a co-investigator. This proved to be a dysfunctional partnership that left our lead teacher group excessively wary of future contacts with the scientific community. Severing this relationship was painful for all involved. Getting past the bad feelings generated has been difficult. Looking back, it is obvious that we had not verified enough if there was a common goal and a common respect for the ability of classroom teachers to grow as science leaders. Fortunately, Dr. Sue Wyckoff was able to move into the scientist co-investigator position. Her assistance was critical in beginning to turn around the lead teachers' perspective. Today, we are well along the road in a variety of strong, positive partnerships with the science community. We regret the time lost at the beginning. Currently the same pressures, which have negatively impacted our partnerships with businesses, appear to be motivating our scientific partnerships.

One of the most surprising things about reflecting back on the beginning of the project is the extent to which our beginning vision has both changed and stayed the same. The vision itself, as written, is appropriate. However, our operational definition of that vision has grown and refined as we learn more about effective practices and systemic sustainability. The last four years have been a time of greater and greater insights into how teachers can best help students create their own understandings of science content. This has been true both here in Gilbert and nationally. As in so many areas, our greatest growth has occurred not from what we knew when we started, or even from what we knew we didn't know, but from those areas where four years ago we didn't even know that we didn't know. This type of growth often results in the development of whole new tools to be used in pursuing the larger vision. Our current commitment to student reflection and to acknowledging and providing for differences among teachers are significantly shifted from four years ago.

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