SERPress - Issue Two

June 10, 2010

SERP Awarded Major Grant for Reading Comprehension
"Catalyzing Comprehension through Discussion and Debate" will explore contributors to deep comprehension for students in grades 4 through 8.

Catherine Snow

The Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has awarded a grant of close to $20 million dollars to the SERP Institute to address middle school reading comprehension. The grant is one of five IES has awarded in an effort to speed up the R&D process aimed at addressing comprehension across all grade levels. Catherine Snow, Kurt Fischer, and Robert Selman of Harvard University; Jonathan Osborne of Stanford University; Lowry Hemphill of Wheelock College; and Suzanne Donovan of SERP Institute will play lead roles, with many others involved. Four districts have signed on as partners – Boston, Brockton, and Falmouth public school districts in Massachusetts, and the San Francisco Unified School District in California. The new initiative extends work that members of this research team have been engaged in for several years through SERP partnerships supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York; the S.D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation; the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; the Leon Lowenstein Foundation, Inc.; the Spencer Foundation; and the John S. and Cynthia L. Reed Foundation. Snow, one of the nation’s most prominent experts on literacy, will be devoting half of her time to the project in each of the next five years.

IES Awards SERP $1.5 Million for R&D in Algebra
"Transforming Algebra Assignments" will address student misconceptions as a means of improving algebra mastery.

Julie Booth

With a $1.5 million IES award, SERP will extend a promising R&D project designed to help students grasp algebra using classroom friendly tools. A team led by Julie Booth of Temple University, Kenneth Koedinger of Carnegie Mellon, Andrew Elliott of the University of Rochester, and Suzanne Donovan and Juliana Pare-Blagoev of SERP, will conduct a series of experiments in six districts from the Minority Student Achievement Network (MSAN): Green Bay and Madison Public Schools (Wisconsin); Evanston 65 (Illinois), Shaker Heights (Ohio), Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (North Carolina), and Ann Arbor (Michigan). MSAN districts are committed to raising the achievement of low income and minority students. Algebra I is often considered the gatekeeper for access to higher level math and science in high school and beyond. The study is based on preliminary work supported by the Goldman Sachs Foundation that has produced findings that point to the potential of this approach to improve learning for all students, with the greatest benefit for minority students. Read more about this work.

Research Team in SERP-San Francisco Field Site to Receive $1.6 Million IES Grant for R&D in Science
Scientists plan to deepen their understanding of students’ thinking in order to improve how science is taught.

Mark Wilson

Through an IES grant to the Berkeley Evaluation and Assessment Research (BEAR) Center, Mark Wilson (U.C. Berkeley) and Jonathan Osborne (Stanford University) will extend the SERP science work in the San Francisco field site. With ongoing support from the S.D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation, the SERP team has been mapping the progress of student thinking from naïve to scientifically accurate, on a set of core science concepts. The particular focus of this grant will be on developing a better understanding of the progression in student ability to reason and argue in a scientific context. The team will explore new ground in their attempt to operationalize scientific reasoning in a manner such that it can be readily assessed in a quantitative or semi- quantitative manner validly and reliably. Read more about this work.

Word Generation Trial Gains West Coast Participant
The San Francisco Unified School District will become the third district in an IES-sponsored efficacy study.

The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) will join Baltimore City Public Schools and Pittsburgh Public Schools in an experimental study of the SERP Word Generation program led by Catherine Snow (Harvard) and David Francis (University of Houston) with the SERP Institute. Word Generation will be implemented this fall at half of the district’s middle schools. The non-implementing schools will have the option of introducing the program two years from now. SFUSD assistant superintendent of middle schools, Jeannie Pon, expressed the district’s interest in implementing the program: “…we want to build the academic language among our middle school students. We are especially intrigued as to how academic vocabulary words are introduced in high interest, single page passages about controversial issues.” Year one of the multi-year Word Generation study wraps up this spring in Baltimore and Pittsburgh.

Massachusetts Sponsors Word Generation Summer Institute
The professional development program for teachers returns, thanks to the support of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

For the second summer in a row SERP and its partners will conduct professional development for educators on Word Generation, a SERP program to teach academic language that was developed under the leadership of Catherine Snow (Harvard). Dr. Snow is research director of the SERP-Boston Field Site. The training will occur June 28-30 on the campus of Harvard University. In addition to Snow, this year’s faculty will include Richard Elmore, also of Harvard; Claire White, SERP Word Generation program director; and Matt Ellinger, SERP director of multimedia development. The three day institute will feature instructional demonstrations from master teachers and tips on how to maximize the web resources. Teachers from eight states have signed up, with the majority coming from Massachusetts which is providing financial support. For more information, download flyer.

ELL Teachers Learn about Word Generation
SERP scholars addressed teachers of English Language Learners at the recent TESOL conference.

Claire White

Claire White of SERP, Joshua Lawrence of Harvard University, and Jennifer Green of the University of Connecticut presented “Developing Academic Language across the Content Areas: Word Generation” at the 2010 conference of Teachers of English to Speakers of Others Languages (TESOL) in Boston, Massachusetts on March 24 – 27. The presentation focused on how gaps in vocabulary and academic language in middle school students may interfere with comprehension of content area texts. The special needs of English language learners were emphasized. TESOL's website

Science Magazine Features Education Scholars
SERP scholars have shared their knowledge in recent issues of the journal Science.

Jonathan Osborne with San Francisco Science Teachers

An increasing number of education experts have published in the journal Science since January 2009 when the journal announced a new plan “to recruit high quality articles on education from the world’s best experts.” SERP leaders and partners have been well represented among them. Phil Daro, director of the SERP-San Francisco Field Site, penned a guest editorial, "Common U.S. Math Standards," for the April 16th issue. A special issue on education followed on April 23rd, focusing on the strong ties between learning science in school and acquiring language and communication skills. Articles included “Academic Language and the Challenge of Reading for Learning about Science,” by Catherine Snow (Harvard professor and research director of the SERP-Boston Field Site); “Arguing to Learn in Science: The Role of Collaborative, Critical Discourse,” by Jonathan Osborne (Stanford professor and SERP partner); and “Literacy and Science: Each in the Service of the Other,” by P. David Pearson (University of California, Berkeley, professor, and SERP partner) and Elizabeth Moje, (University of Michigan professor and SERP partner), along with Cynthia Greenleaf of WestEd.

Going Global
The SERP work has begun to reach an international audience, thanks to the efforts of SERP leaders, scholars, and partners.

Joshua Lawrence

Catherine Snow spoke to an international audience on April 27th and May 4th in a two part interview (part 1 - part 2) about academic language in science that was aired by the Voice of America (VOA). Co-hosts Avi Arditti and Rosanne Skirble interviewed Snow on WORDMASTER, a VOA program that caters to English language learners in other countries. Joshua Lawrence will chair the symposium, “Understanding the relationships between reading skills at incremental levels: Evidence from multiple methodologies,” at the Society for Scientific Study of Reading on July 9th in Berlin. Lawrence, along with Claire White and Catherine Snow, will also present a paper at the symposium entitled, “Improving reading comprehension through academic vocabulary instruction.” Finally, those fortunate enough to be in Melbourne for the Australian Council for Education Research from August 15-17 may have the chance to hear keynote speaker Phil Daro talk about Standards and Differences.

AERA Presidential Session Draws a Crowd
Symposium on Use-inspired Research and Development: Solving Middle School Challenges in the SERP-Boston Field Site showcased SERP-Boston partnership work.

Presidential Session Presenters

SERP partners from the five-year-old Boston Field Site shared their work and accomplishments with an appreciative crowd at the 2010 AERA Annual Meeting in Denver on May 2nd. As each speaker delivered his or her presentation, the iterative nature of the development process in the Boston Public Schools became increasingly apparent. Participants included: Catherine Snow, Michelle Forman (representing Richard Elmore), Lowry Hemphill, John Sabatini, Suzanne Donovan, and Kelley Curley. More information

SERP Partners Help Craft Common State Academic Standards
On June 2nd the National Governors Association and State Education Chiefs launched the Common Core State Standards.

Phil Daro

A variety of stakeholders helped develop the recently-released Common Core State Standards, among them content experts, states, teachers, school administrators, parents, and some of SERP’s most dedicated leaders and partners. Phil Daro chaired the mathematics working group for the Council of Chief State School officers, while Kenji Hakuta (Stanford) and Uri Treisman (University of Texas) participated in the mathematics feedback group. Catherine Snow and Kenji Hakuta participated in the English-language Arts feedback group. Hakuta is a SERP partner and developer of WordSift (featured in the last issue of SERPress). The standards development process was led by officials in 48 states, two territories, and the District of Columbia. It is now up to states to adopt and then implement the standards.

NEW: SERP INSTITUTE HAS TWO JOB OPENINGS

1. Boston R&D Project Director Position: managing all aspects of the 5 year collaboration focused on middle school reading comprehension.

2. Washington, DC R&D Project Management Position: overseeing two major literacy grant programs for the SERP national office.

Applicants: Please send an email to Bhoffmaster@serpinstitute.org by July 9, attaching a cover letter, resume, and contact information for 3 references. No phone inquiries please!

For more information about SERP, please visit serpinstitute.org

Strategic Education Research Partnership
2100 M Street NW, Suite 619
Washington, DC 20037 (202) 223-8555
info@serpinstitute.org