Projects

Spring 2020

After the Board approved the proposal, CAIQR set out to develop projects in quest of increasing the STEM teaching capacity of districts and high schools. From the original lists of 21 districts and 39 schools that were presented at Board meetings, CAIQR would reach out to those schools/districts Plans included to:

  • work with various Bridge Courses: San Diego (Discrete Mathematics & Problem Solving [DMPS]); Sacramento (Transition to Quantitative Reasoning [TQR] and Quantitative Reasoning with Advanced Mathematical Topics [QRAT]); Pomona (Mathematical Reasoning with Connections [MRWC]), plus CSUN, Transition to College Mathematics and Statistics [TCMS];
  • increase Supplementary Authorization in Computer Science by having some campuses develop an online program,
  • offer professional development sessions to middle school and Algebra I teachers through the CSUN project called TEAMS, and
  • work with MSTI Directors and EAP Coordinators in working with districts to assure partnership and continuance of building STEM teaching capacity.

 

Discrete Mathematics & Problem Solving [DMPS]

The team is set to complete the student curriculum for the Discrete Mathematics & Problem Solving (DMPS, 3rd-year course) by August 31st, and also will make as much progress on the teacher materials as possible to go with that curriculum. PD planning is set for early July. By end of August, DMPS Teaching Materials will be completed and teacher PD is planned. The preparation for informational meetings with COE’s, district administrators, counselors, and teachers and construction of an evaluation plan should have been completed. During Fall 2020, the team will speak to districts and high schools for recruiting possible trainees. During Spring 2021, counselors will be trained and participants for the Summer Training will be finalized. Summer 2021 will be the training time for the selected participants:  two Saturday sessions and one full-week session.

Transition to Quantitative Reasoning [TQR] and Quantitative Reasoning with Advanced Mathematical Topics [QRAT]
 

The team members are in the process of placing the professional learning on an online platform.  One member will also be refining the curriculum content and video creation for this purpose, whereas another one will be working on professional learning best practices. They will also acquire needed software to facilitate participant learning and explore ways to package and distribute the training to interested high schools, districts, and nearby regions. To date, the Sacramento team has completed their summer training and the 25 participants are having follow-up meetings during the AY 2020-2021.

Through these efforts, they are moving toward a professional learning program that is a hybrid of both asynchronous and synchronous instruction. The first part—to be completed asynchronously and at an individual’s own pace—covers the instructional materials, background, theory, and facilitative approach of both courses, while the second part is comprised of monthly synchronous sessions where teachers will learn about the pedagogy and mathematical content covered in each of the course units. Teachers will also be required to complete the asynchronous assignments outlined in each of the online content unit modules.

Moving to this new format of professional training would allow for greater scalability, allowing the team to reach a much larger audience of interested teachers both in and out of state. To that end, they have created a comprehensive online marketing tool to make learning about our courses and registering for their training even easier than before. Pathways to Quantitative Reasoning Success website will give more details and note that our first cohort is set to begin in December 2020.

Transition to College Mathematics and Statistics [TCMS]

The project is now more focused on the preservation and firming up what is currently in place and not too much on the expansion. One way of doing it is hiring an Instructional Designer to help with online platform. The team hired another team member, Otilia Gonzales, to help manage the additional load of having Compton and El Monte join in. They paid the summer PD time from those campuses and to expand the online resources used to teach TCMS online.

Mathematical Reasoning with Connections [MRWC]

CSET III Pilot

There are five participants in the pilot. The team had originally recruited nine teachers, but some had to withdraw due to circumstantial difficulties related to the stay-at-home mandates and the extra workloads of switching to online instruction in K-12. The team held their Zoom Meet-and-Greet meeting with the CSET 3 cohort and started the workshops already. The workshops were scheduled for 6/6/20 and 6/12/20 and will continue throughout the year.

The team had originally planned to hold five whole days of face-to-face CSET workshops before the start of the ten-day MRWC summer online workshops. Because of the reduced workshop hours, presentations were restructured to make sure that these beginning CSET workshops help participants develop sufficient content fluency to engage in the MRWC materials.

MRWC Preservice Project

The team is in near completion of the outlines to be used in preservice capstone and methods courses. There are eight independent modules, some with mini modules. The modules are each designed for about six to eight hours of instruction and the mini-modules are designed for two to four hours of instruction. Five of the modules are in the final draft and have been shared and approved by a preservice advisory committee. The last three modules are in second draft form at the moment but are anticipated to be completed by summer. The modules will be field-tested in capstone and methods courses in AY 2020-21. In addition, some of the modules will be field-tested by the advisory committee colleagues.

MRWC Trainer-Of-Trainers (TOT)

As of March 2020, the development of the TOT materials i.e. agendas, MRWC rationale, resource documents, communications documents, fluency moments, PPTs, etc. is almost completed and the team had started working on writing up detailed activity notes for presenters. Because of the urgency of revamping the MRWC workshops and editing the MRWC Teacher Guide and games to account for online PD and K-12 instruction, the team’s effort had to divert, resulting in needing more time to complete the activity notes.  The resumption of regular face-to-face workshops is not yet determined (and maybe for a longer period) as the team needs to finish that part of the TOT materials. 

Pomona has completed its ten-day workshop this summer (June 15th to June 26th). A total of 26 teachers, mostly from Southern CA districts, participated in the workshop. These teachers will continue to have online follow-up sessions during fall 2020 and spring 2021.

Supplementary Authorization in Computer Science

The team is developing a certificate program that will consist of three upper-division courses for a total of 10 credits to be offered in three consecutive semesters/sessions, starting summer 2020 or fall 2020 (a one-year program – two semesters and one summer session). Courses would use open-sourced software and free textbooks.

By June 2020, the first course CSC 395-61 would be done. By August 2020, the other two courses CSC 395-62 and CSC 395-63. During Summer 2020, recruitment of potential in-service teachers for the program will begin. During Fall 2020, the team will submit the paperwork for permanent courses and the certificate program and offer the first special topics course. The remaining two courses will be offered during Spring 2021 and Summer 2021.

This year they were able to recruit 18 qualified in-service teachers. Currently they are taking the first course and based on our latest survey, they are very pleased with the class and are eager to complete the curriculum and apply for the Supplementary Authorization. Finally, they have teamed with CSU Bakersfield to apply for a CS for ALL grant.

Supplementary Authorization in Computer Science

During the remainder of 2020, the Los Angeles team will develop an online program of five courses for in-service teachers to earn this supplementary authorization. The completion of the program will also make these teachers eligible to continue with the MA program (Educational Technology).

Two courses were converted from hybrid to online formats (EDIT 4840, EDIT 5600) and a new course (EDIT 5650) was developed. These courses are being taught during the Fall 2020 semester. The four courses for the Supplementary Authorization in Computer Science, Introductory are being aligned to ISTE standards and the fifth course for the specific authorization (EDIT 5700) is being developed with the Computer.

Science department. Currently, there are 19 students who are finishing the courses needed for the Supplementary Authorization in Computer Science and are in the process of seeing how many of them will be applying for the authorization. Twenty students started the CS authorization this semester and should finish next semester. Those students also need to be polled to see how many intend to apply for the Supplementary Authorization.

Supplementary Authorization in Computer Science

During summer and fall 2020 the Sacramento team will develop a program for in-service teachers with the following features:

  • Coursework for the Introductory Supplementary Authorization will consist of five newly designed upper-division classes totaling 10 credits. Coursework for the Specific Supplementary Authorization will total 15 credits, all upper-division courses; none of the courses in either program will be graduate-level courses.
  • The program will be fully online and offered through the College of Continuing Education of California State University, Sacramento.
  • There will be applications of data science and cyber security included in the coursework.

The team will collaborate with the Sacramento County Office of Education and other area districts (through several ongoing K-12 computer science education projects) to shape the proposed curriculum. The faculty involved in this project plan to offer courses through Continuing Education to current K-12 teachers beginning in the summer 2021. They will recruit statewide, focusing on districts without a fourth-year Quantitative Reasoning course, and using Continuing Education’s effective marketing efforts. A challenge is the capacity of the Computer Science Department to staff its courses, as the number of students taking stateside CS courses continues to increase while the ranks of faculty lines has remained stagnant. They believe that the first time each new course is taught, it should be taught by the tenure-line faculty who designed the course. But we have included strategies that will build a cadre of additional individuals who can teach the courses in the future.

Supplementary Authorization in Computer Science

The team will convert the Summer 2020 Institute to an online, synchronous format to deliver the summer institute, which is usually delivered live. During June-July 2020, the other courses will be converted to an online format: CSC 309, CSC 310, CSC 305, and CSC 698. Also, a course evaluation will be developed. During August-December 2020, offer CSC 309/310, CSC 305, and CSC 698 according to the design and development, convert CSC 645, including potentially creating a new 300-level course in the bulletin, and evaluate the initial implementation of CSC 309/310, CSC 305 and CSC 698. For the courses, the team has converted 4 out of 5 courses to an online format. The last course will be converted and offered online in Spring 2021.

To date, Supplementary Authorization in Computer Science Cohorts and completion rates are:

  • Cohort 1: 6 teachers (all of them have completed. 2 have applied and received SA, 3 have applied and are waiting for results)
  • Cohort 2: 20 teachers (will complete the program at the end of this semester)
  • Cohort 3: 31 teachers (will complete the program in Fall 2021)
  • Cohort 4: 40+ teachers (will start in Summer 2021)

Finally, the team is meeting with Sacramento State, Sonoma State, and San Jose State to move the Northern Regional Computer Science consortium to the next level of coordination on coursework and potential funding opportunities.

Summer and Fall 2020

During Summer 2020, the MSTI and the MSTI-STEM Challenge applications were revised to include in their submission a plan to increase the number of not only mathematics and science credentials but also Supplementary Authorization and Subject Matter Authorization. The awards to the campuses were distributed in mid-October 2020.

Moreover, a revised list of 29 school districts identified by CSUCO was given to the QR Workgroup. These districts were those with the highest number of fall 2020 freshman enrollees that would not have fulfilled the additional year of QR despite the fact of having the course(s) to offer. The list is below:

As of this writing, MRWC has provided service to some teachers in these districts: Downey, Baldwin Park, Coachella Valley, Hemet, Jurupa, Moreno Valley, and Riverside USDs, while QRAT/QTR has provided service to some teachers in these districts: San Juan and Lodi USD's DMPS continues to have a conversation with Oceanside USD in getting their teachers trained in Discrete Mathematics. Lastly, TCMS is working with Compton and El Monte USD.

Also, CAIQR sent a letter to Superintendents of all these districts, regardless of whether the district has been a partner already. This will give all an opportunity to layout and view all the K-12 PD opportunities that CAIQR offers. Some may not be aware of the Supplementary Authorization in Computer Science or the TEAMS project. Further, this letter was shared with MSTI Directors, EAP Coordinators, Bridge Courses projects, the TEAMS project, and the campuses offering Supplementary Authorization in Computer Science. A meeting is scheduled in December 2020 for each of these groups to discuss a plan of action in assisting and/or supporting these districts, particularly districts that will partner with CAIQR for the first time.

Furthermore, CAIQR realizes that the impact of getting students ready for QR should begin in the elementary years. It is during these times that the QR foundation is built and developed to meet the demands of the discipline during the upper years. Hence, CAIQR teamed with CalStateTEACH to develop a pilot project called the Mathematics Literacy Project for Multiple Subject Credential Teachers. The project is being offered to K-8 teachers to assist the next generation of K-8 students with college readiness and to address the existing equity gap in educational outcomes for historically underserved students. The project started in Fall 2020 and will continue to the end of spring 2021. An invitation was sent out to LAUSD and Compton USD to avail of these PD sessions but both did not participate. As this project plans to submit a proposal to a possible funder and to determine its effects on students and teachers, this project is now being offered to a group of charter schools called ISANA Academies. It runs 6 high-quality schools in urban, high-need neighborhoods of Los Angeles and serves approximately 3100 students from transitional kindergarten through 8th grade. The project also has an evaluator to determine the project’s meeting of its goals.

Finally, CAIQR will continue to work with all the above-mentioned campuses, particularly in the possibility of offering an online QR transition course in one high school so that other high school students across the state may enroll in it too. It also may seek some campuses for other projects like an online streamlined program in Supplementary Authorization in Computer Science and training PDs for teachers in the K-8 level. These projects are done all in the expectation of increasing the STEM teaching capacity of districts and allowing all HS students to succeed in their secondary education.