Initiatives to improve teacher quality and student achievement in math and science are
increasingly focusing on the role that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
(STEM) faculty play in the teacher preparation process. Yet STEM faculty infrequently

Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago. The lack of coordination between STEM and education faculty in teacher preparation is viewed as a crucial breakdown in the system of teacher education. This paper describes findings from a qualitative case study of one Institution of Higher Education (IHE) participating in System-wide Change for All Learners and Educators (SCALE), an NSF-funded Math & Science Partnership project. This research is an embedded case study of a comprehensive university on the West Coast, which employed a grounded theory approach to analyzing interview (N=41) and document data, a framework for Educational Culture Process Analysis, and causal network analysis. At this IHE, bifurcated state regulations and IHE programs governing teacher preparation, differences between STEM and education faculty’s ownership of teacher preparation, and strained relations characterized by stereotypes, interacted to create an institutional context that was generally unfavorable. In this context, SCALE created five new opportunities for STEM and education faculty to interact, including a series of professional development workshops led by an education faculty who deftly negotiated STEM faculty concerns that they would be “told how to teach” and given tools that were poorly suited to their courses. Through these interactions SCALE was successful in fostering a nascent “community of practice” of STEM and education faculty, influencing some STEM faculty’s pedagogical practices and their perspectives regarding the value of pedagogy and educational research, and changing some structural elements of the teacher preparation program. However, SCALE was unable to influence several factors that invariably shape individual practice and group meaning systems, and continued opportunities for interaction into the future will be needed for this emerging network to become a factor that effectively fosters long-term institutional change.

This symposium is organized around case studies of instructional reform in four school districts: Denver , Los Angeles , Madison , and Providence . The four districts are partners in SCALE, a mathematics and science partnership (MSP) funded by NSF. Under the partnership, each district committed to a common vision and theory of action for instructional reform across five dimensions of policy and organization: curriculum, professional learning, monitoring of interim outcomes, accountability, and system management and problem solving. Agents of the partnership external to the districts participated in reform efforts through "co-construction," a wide-ranging set of collaborative activities (planning, training, product design, piloting and evaluation) with a wide range of district actors (top management, departments of teaching and learning, principals, coaches, teachers).

The Denver Public Schools (DPS) case study describes how the district is improving its instructional guidance system in math and science through policy initiatives, investments in ‘content capacity,’ and leveraging external resources to affect teacher workforce quality. The case draws on document review and extensive interviews of district administration to make explicit and then analyze the district theory of action, and it shows how SCALE is involved in the change process.

The case study of Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) analyzes how the district is attempting to implement and sustain system-wide educational change, as well as the specific initiatives underway to improve teaching and learning in the areas of math and science. The study also analyzes the district’s theory of change and the role SCALE is playing in that change process.

In this symposium, paper presenters and discussants examine the collaborative efforts of the Los Angeles Unified School District , two local California State Universities , and the SCALE project (an NSF- funded math/science partnership). The objectives of the symposium are to (1.) examine how actors from the various organizations and levels negotiate and reformulate their roles as a result of participation in the partnership activity and, consequently, how such changes enhance their capacities to contribute to science education reform through sustained implementation of curriculum units that foster students’ in-depth understanding of key science concepts through scientific inquiry; and (2.) analyze the extent to which the partnership activities help these units become a core part of the curriculum.

The case study of the Providence Public School District (PPSD) evaluates the impact of the System-wide Change for All Learners and Educators (SCALE) partnership on the four Goal 1 dimensions of: the core teaching system (curriculum), professional development, monitoring, and assessment/ accountability. PPSD is a mid-size school district with a student population that is overwhelmingly poor and minority.