Archived Information

Massachusetts Department of Education

# **GOAL: IMPROVING TEACHER QUALITY**

**ACTIVITY**: **SUMMER CONTENT INSTITUTES IN MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE**

**PURPOSE:** The Massachusetts Summer Content Institute Program is an
intensive professional development program that supports local
districts' efforts to raise the achievement of students in mathematics
and science and technology/engineering. Each year, approximately 50
Content Institutes are sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of
Education in partnership with school districts, educational
collaborative, charter schools, colleges and universities, cultural
institutions and professional development organizations.

The purpose of these discipline-specific content institutes is to
strengthen the content knowledge teachers need for teaching the learning
standards in the K-12 mathematics and science curriculum frameworks. The
partnership requires presenters to possess strong mathematical content
expertise and knowledge of the K-12 learning standards. The institutes
focus on the concepts and skills that students are expected to know and
understand in the state frameworks.

**SUMMARY:** The Massachusetts Content Institute Program began in 1996
and has always been offered at no charge to all K-12 Massachusetts
educators. The first institutes were in mathematics and science and were
funded with National Science Foundation State Systemic Initiative funds
and in 1999 we expanded the program to address all disciplines.
Adaptations to the institute program were made based on the amount of
funding available; for example: earlier institutes provided over 100
hours of professional development (two full weeks in the summer and four
to five full-day follow-up sessions during the school year to support
teachers' implementation of the content in their classrooms working with
students.) Currently, each content institute provides at least 45 hours
of direct instruction and meets the requirements for recertification as
an advanced course of academic study. In order to receive any
Professional Development Points or college credits, participants are
required to attend all sessions, take part in a pre- and post-
assessments of content knowledge, and complete activities outside of
class time that result in a project that demonstrates their learning and
supports increased student learning of this content in the classroom.

**ACCOMPLISHMENTS:** Over 9,000 Massachusetts educators have
participated in these institutes since 1996. Since 1998, we have
required a pre/post test to assess the participants' content knowledge
gain during the institute. Each year, an external evaluator has
summarized the data. The majority of the institutes (93% in the year
2002) show statistically significant increases in the content knowledge
of participants based on the pre/post test results.

**PLANS FOR 2003:** A competitive request for proposals was issued in
December 2002 for Summer Content Institutes during the summer of 2003.
Proposals will be read and reviewed during February and March 2003. The
Department plans to fund approximately 10 content institutes in
mathematics for elementary, middle school and high school teachers and 5
content institutes in science and technology/engineering for middle and
high school teachers. Federal Eisenhower funds and USDOE Instructional
Technology program funds will be used to support the 2003 Massachusetts
content institute program. In addition we have partnered with the
Massachusetts Energy Renewable Trust Fund to support an additional 5-6
institutes in science focusing on the topic of energy. At this time we
are unsure of a funding source for 2004.