Original Vision

Bay Area Schools for Excellence in Education (BASEE) was a seven district Local System Change collaborative working with Hewlett-Packard Company and Agilent Technologies to improve science instruction for elementary students. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, this initiative provided professional development for 1,750 teachers who serve approximately 44,000 students. Collaborative districts included: Cupertino, Los Altos, Menlo Park, Mountain View-Whisman, Palo Alto, Redwood City and Santa Clara. A myriad of other important partnerships emerged such as learning centers at the Exploratorium and WestEd or scientific institutions such as Stanford Linear Accelerator, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institution or US Geological Survey plus individuals who significantly impacted the work from Stanford University, San Jose State University, UC Berkeley and California State University at Sacramento. Together the partnership envisioned:

• building a sustainable system more powerful than any partner district could individually maintain
• helping teachers increase their content knowledge and science process skills - heightening their confidence and enthusiasm for science - as they experienced models of excellent pedagogy

In the early 1990's each of the districts participated in Hewlett-Packard's Hands-On Science Program, which included training at the National Science Resources Center (NSRC) in Washington, DC and a three-year $90,000 grant. Each district had a successful curriculum launch with the purchase of FOSS, STC or Insights units and a method for kit refurbishment. In 1997, BASEE sought to sustain those efforts and boost the districts to the next level with all students experiencing inquiry-based lessons meaningfully connected to math, literacy and technology. Recognizing that educators have different professional development needs during their careers, BASEE designed training for five different audiences.

Five Strands for Professional Development

1. Nuts & Bolts - unit training for new teachers, or those new to the curriculum
2. Ongoing Content & Pedagogy - in-depth summer institutes offered 30 hours of content background with rich examples of good teaching
3. Leadership - Lead teachers from each school site honed skills in coaching, facilitation skills, dealing with change and resistance, and inquiry
4. Administrators - Special workshops for principals and district administrators
5. Science Resource Teachers - SRTs built skills in leadership, professional development design, reflective practice, presentation skills and content background.

To guide selection, teachers began with a BASEE-designed professional rubric that identified potential areas for growth. Then each teacher developed a personal learning plan and selected opportunities that fit. Likewise, schools developed site science plans based on their identified needs.

Summer Content Institutes
Summer content institutes were designed to align with the state science standards and the curriculum concepts teachers were expected to teach at each grade level. One discipline of science (earth, life or physical) was addressed each year. The summer institutes could serve more than 20% of the teacher population each summer. The triad model for instructional teams meant that a content expert (often a university professor) took the lead in designing the summer institute curriculum and was guided by the assistance of the SRT who knew the students, teachers and curriculum. Also, a volunteer scientist served on each instructional team to provide content expertise, real world connections and often the field trip to enhance the teachers' learning.

Inquiry Institutes
Thanks to the Exploratorium Inquiry institutes along with their coaching, the SRTs patterned a BASEE "Invitations to Inquiry" institute that was offered every year. Featuring light and color as the content base, inquiry experiences were provided at an adult level. At the end of the week, teachers applied what they learned to their own classrooms by re-designing a lesson to increase the inquiry. Follow up coaching was provided along with an Advanced Inquiry institute in subsequent years.

Leadership and New Teacher Professional Development
Recognizing that sustainability would depend on maintaining leadership while simultaneously providing for new teachers, BASEE launched a program to build a cadre of "Certified Kit Trainers" who could deliver well-designed six-hour sessions on a single unit for new teachers or those new to the curriculum. The SRTs developed a list of six essentials for kit training as the mega-messages that all new teachers should experience regardless of unit topic:

1. Feature important concepts in science content by using the storylines.
2. Model use of science notebook with explicit remarks about value.
3. Demonstrate use of good classroom and materials management strategies.
4. Reiterate process skills within the lessons.
5. Refer to learning cycle chart and emphasize importance of the debrief portion of a lesson.
6. Show non-fiction books as examples of reading in the content area.

Each year a "Leap into Leadership" session provided training for experienced teachers who wished to become Certified Kit Trainers in order to provide professional development for new teachers.

Reflections from the end:

While not every component of the BASEE project will be continued, several key elements envisioned are fully sustainable. BASEE is in a step-by-step process of moving to a "fee for service" model. To that end, the first element to move into this system is the new teacher professional development six-hour training model. Each of the seven districts has agreed to financially support this program and provide regional Certified Kit Trainers to deliver the sessions.

Because of the emphasis on conceptual understanding and the use of science notebooks (along with other elements) in all professional development programs, BASEE changed the cultural expectation of what high quality professional development is like. Other curricular area programs have adopted some of BASEE's practices and procedures to boost the quality of their offerings - a delightful compliment.

Leadership development built regional capacity that will provide ongoing support. School site lead teachers stepped into leadership roles by becoming Certified Kit Trainers, presenters and members of summer institute instructional teams. We are gratified to note that this demonstrates the value of professional development as a tool for dignifying the teaching profession by creating a role for leadership. The SRTs have emerged as a self-reflective, high functioning crew. Together, they clearly create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. In fact, the process of deep collaborative planning has resulted in not only program plans but also the significant professional change and growth of each of the members.

Key Promoters

• Working with all levels of the system throughout the life of the project was essential. Superintendents maintained the vision; assistant superintendents removed roadblocks; principals encouraged and observed science lessons; lead teachers advocated and assisted; SRTs designed and delivered programs; industry partners asked the tough questions and provided creative solutions.
• The fact that districts were committed to their hands-on science curricula meant that they did not switch to new curriculum even when those units were no longer available using state dollars.
• Districts have maintained their refurbishment systems for ten years and find them more cost effective than purchasing new curricula.
• At the superintendents' request, districts aligned curricula with state standards. Where gaps existed, they made appropriate adjustments.
• Leadership development created regional capacity that will sustain the professional development.
• Evaluation data of student success and improved teacher practice provided a key source of data-driven support.

Inhibitors

• Statewide changes created a need to be ever nimble on our feet. From class-size reduction to the exclusion of FOSS and STC from the adoption lists to a severe economic crisis, educators were buffeted by political winds.
• Lack of a statewide science assessment made keeping science on the front burner difficult.
• Turn over at all levels from teachers to superintendents meant constant renewal of project goals.
• Lack of some principals' involvement created uneven school participation.

Suggestions based on lessons learned

• No audience or strand can be neglected during systemic reform.
• Mega messages require group agreement and continual reinforcement.
• Deliberate inclusion of a variety of roles in decision-making sessions lengthens the process but improves the outcome. Corporate and community partners add significant value to problem solving, idea generation and out of-the-box thinking.
• When teachers experience the power of inquiry as adult learners, they tell us that they can never teach the same way again. They welcome opportunities to bring more inquiry into to their lessons and recognize that this strategy is an important way to differentiate the teaching for various learning needs eg. gifted students, English language learners, or beginning readers.
• Capacity built raises the bar of expectations. The quality of professional development in all curricular areas improves when participants learn to expect high quality. Also, these experiences help develop a professional culture of teachers as communities of learners.

Questions for visitors

1. In the face of severe budget cuts in all areas of district finances, how will your project maintain science professional development?
2. If your project is pursuing a "fee for service" model, what have you learned that might help those just beginning?
3. How does your project keep principals informed and engaged?