Lessons Learned: Scaling Up Science Professional Learning in Collaboration With Regional, District, School, and Individual Partners

• In Event: Supporting and Studying Implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards on a Large Scale

Abstract

Objectives: This paper summarizes findings from a science professional learning (PL) scale-up study and provides first-hand perspectives from partner participants.

Perspective(s): This study is guided by grounded theory [4] and resulted in the development of four descriptive, comparative case studies [13] that address the following questions: What factors contributed to the successful scaling of the PL program? Specifically, a) What conditions supported partners’ decisions to bring the program to scale? b) Under what conditions did scale-up partners successfully meet their scale-up goals? c) How are the factors that contribute to successful scaling different at the different partnership levels (regional, district, school, and individual)? d) What barriers to scaling were encountered, what measures were taken to address them, and to what degree were those measures successful?

Methods: Regional science leaders (including state leaders), district leaders, school leaders, and individual teachers partnered with a provider of science PL at various levels (regional-, district-, school-, or individual-level partnerships) to develop and implement plans for providing science PL and supporting science teaching, according to their areas’ needs. We studied these partnerships to understand how PL is brought to scale in a wide variety of contexts.

Data: Data came from participants representing one regional partnership, four district partnerships, and 17 school or individual partnerships. Data included: observations, attendance, and feedback from leadership events designed to support partners’ scale-up activities; observations of partner planning meetings; interviews; written plans; logs about partner-led events; and surveys about partners’ motivations, scale-up experiences, collaboration, local context, views about the impact of their work, and future plans.

Results: Partners at all levels successfully planned and implemented science PL during the study year. Scale-up efforts required the active engagement of at least one local leader who had the time, motivation, and energy to advocate for science, find and align resources, assemble teams to carry out the work, coordinate information among various parties within the system, and persist and be resilient in the face of change. Leadership events such as weekend training retreats supported partners by building relationships among the partners and with the PL developers. These collaborative, community-building interactions helped build trust in the PL program, empower the partners to take on leadership roles, and provide informational and social support.

Barriers included inconsistent leadership, lack of funding, and low prioritization of science education at the school or district level. The development of five-year implementation plans helped to give the PL program more staying power through changes in district or school leadership and funding. However, partners needed more support than expected from the PL developers to articulate these plans and engage in processes that helped to make the plans more sustainable (e.g., involving a wider variety of stakeholders in the planning process).

Significance: This work advances the field’s understanding of the conditions that support the scaling and sustainability of effective professional learning.

Authors

• Nicole Wong, Heller Research Associates

• Marcia Barton, New Mexico Math and Science Advisory Council

• Lisa Snyder, Manteca Unified School District