As the push for accountability races across the public schools of the United States, educators are increasingly asked to demonstrate the effectiveness of instructional programs in terms of student achievement. There is a limited body of research evidence from which educators can draw information regarding student accomplishment trends in science education. Most of the research evidence stems from the first generation of programs that first were used in United States classrooms in the 1960 s and 1970's. There is little research evidence for the second generation of reform programs that emerged in the 1990 s. This case study examines the effectives of these second generation programs in the context of their impact on students participating in the Valle Imperial Project in Science, a National Science Foundation funded Local Systemic Change Project in El Centro, California.
Imperial County is in the southeast corner of California along the U.S. border with Mexico.
The program assessment analyzed and compared only the scores of students who had been enrolled in the El Centro School District, regardless of school of attendance, for the last four years. This part of the design was to examine student accomplishment only for students who had the potential to be exposed to the district science program during this four-year time interval. The case study also examined student achievement in other areas of the curriculum, which may have been affected as a result of this approach to teaching elementary science. VIPS staff utilized the 6th Grade District Writing Proficiency results from the spring 1999 administration. Student notebooks are an integral part of the science program.