Professor Sevian’s NSF $12.5 Mathematics and Science Program

In October 2004, Assistant Professor Hannah Sevian, in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, was awarded the National Science Foundation’s major center grant of $12.5 million in its Mathematics and Science Program.  This largest grant in the University’s history points to the faculty’s successful efforts in fulfilling its urban mission.  The grant funds a major outreach to Boston Public Schools where continuing education activities will improve the knowledge of its science and mathematics teachers.  New online instruction and professional education activities seek to improve the performance of students throughout the district by advancing the knowledge of its secondary school teachers.  This funding resulted in the University through the Graduate College of Education and the College of Science and Mathematics opening the new Center of Science and Mathematics in Context (COSMIC) under the leadership of newly appointed Distinguished Professor of Education Arthur Eisenkraft, where the NSF grant is housed.      

Dorchester Partnership Wins Mayor’s Award for K-12 Outreach

By Anne-Marie Kent

 The imposing brick building on Peacevale Street in Dorchester once known as Dorchester High looks much the same as it did forty years ago, but a great deal has changed there during those years, most notably the school’s division into three individual schools with different names and points of focus. Over the years and through the reorganization, UMass Boston faculty, staff, and Graduate College of Education students have been active at the school. The partnership involves a dedicated array of programs focused on student learning, matriculation to college, and teacher training.

Boston’s Mayor Thomas Menino recognized this long-standing involvement on December 8, when he awarded UMass Education Award. “UMass Boston’s relationship with Dorchester High goes back many years, and over those years, many people in and beyond our Graduate College of Education and our Academic Support pre-collegiate programs have made huge contributions to the collaboration,” said UMass Boston Chancellor Keith Motley. “This is a well-deserved recognition for a sustained partnership.” “The involvement with Dorchester High goes all the way back to Joan Becker and Charlie Desmond...all the way back to Boston State,” affirmed Graduate College of Education professor Lisa Gonsalves, whose expansive work with the Boston Public Schools includes a book she’s writing with Dorchester Education Complex Economics and Business Academy headmaster Jack Leonard, examining the history and culture of the school and pointing to lessons that can be learned and applied in urban schools everywhere.

“We call it ‘the University of Massachusetts at Dorchester High,’” said former Dorchester High headmaster Robert Belle in an interview for the Alumni Magazine prior to the reorganization. “That’s how tight it is— not just for the teachers we’re training, but for the faculty who are already at the school and the students. It goes even deeper than GCOE. You tie in Upward Bound, Urban Scholars, and a whole wealth of services that the university has brought to the table.”

The brainchild of Associate Chancellor Charles Desmond, Urban Scholars provides tutoring and support for gifted high schoolers. According to Joan Becker, associate vice provost for academic support, the program was recently recognized for national excellence by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Research and Improvement. Fully 95percent of the Urban Scholars graduates enter college. Over 85% graduate.

“Receiving the Mayor’s first Higher Education K-12 Partnership Award is a great honor for UMass Boston and will enhance our ability to continue our work with students, faculty, and administrators at Dorchester,” said Associate Vice Provost Becker. Becker’s programs, along with others overseen by Graduate College of Education professor Lucia Meyerson-David, work to increase the number of Dorchester students who successfully pursue post-secondary education  

At the award presentation, Mayor Menino said, “Over the years, colleges and universities have come to see their relationship with the community in broader terms. These institutions do not just educate; they also employ our residents and serve as our neighbors. Everyone stands to win when higher education, the city, and the community work together.” The K-12 Education Partnership Award recognizes a partnership that represents a genuine commitment to teaching and learning in K-12 education with the Boston Public School system, the mayor’s office said. City officials recognized the UMass Boston-DEC partnership as an example of “a long-term commitment centered on college readiness for students at the DEC who will become the first in their family to attend college.”

Chancellor Motley praised the efforts of those who make the partnership Dccrhester Eduation Complex a success. Accepting the award with Chancellor Motley were UMass President Jack M. Wilson, Graduate College of Education Dean Lester Goodchild, Associate Vice Provost Joan Becker, Professor Lisa Gonsalves, and DEC Partnership Coordinator Alison Skerrett. The awards ceremony brought the higher education community together with city officials to honor and celebrate 10 years of building successful partnerships between the city and local colleges and universities. 

In addition to UMass Boston, Harvard University was presented with the Vision Award, which recognized the Cambridge university’s role as a founding member of Boston’s After School for All Partnership. Also, Boston College was presented the Achievement Award for the “Boston College-Boston Police Department Community Partnership Program.”

UMass Boston Awarded $12.5 Million for Science Education Reform in Boston Schools

By Ed Hayward

The University of Massachusetts Boston has received a $12.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation for the Boston Science Partnership, a collaboration with Northeastern University and the Boston Public Schools on a five-year science education reform program that will provide teacher training and innovative course development, U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy announced at a press conference held on October 1.

The Boston Science Partnership was designed to improve science teaching and learning for nearly 33,000 middle and high school students in the Boston Public Schools (BPS) through teacher training, “inquiry-based” science instruction, and ground-breaking engineering curriculum.

“This impressive partnership is a significant breakthrough,” Senator Kennedy said. “It has the potential to give our city schools much greater liberty to offer world-class science instruction to all students. Our schools are succeeding in improving student achievement in reading and math, but science is another story.  Only 9 percent of 8th grade students score at the proficient level in science, and 80 percent of science teachers are not ‘highly qualified’ under the No Child Left Behind Act. The partnership’s plan can change all that over the next five years, and it deserves our strong support.”

In addition to UMass Boston, Northeastern and the Boston schools, the program includes supporting partners at Harvard Medical School, The College Board, and the Education Development Center.  The grant is the largest ever awarded to UMass Boston researchers.

“UMass Boston is proud to continue its long history of work with the Boston Public Schools through this partnership aimed at dramatically improving science education for the city’s schoolchildren,” said Chancellor J. Keith Motley. “Boston’s public school students deserve the best science teachers available and those teachers deserve the best training and preparation possible.” The grant is designed to build challenging science courses, increase the number of highly qualified Boston science teachers, increase accessibility for BPS students to advanced science courses, and assist university faculty working side-by-side with school teachers.

“The University of Massachusetts, and our Boston campus in particular, holds a deep commitment to working with our communities to solve problems,” said UMass president Jack M. Wilson. “The Boston Science Partnership will give thousands of Boston students the opportunity to receive the education they need to participate in the science and engineering economy of the 21st Century.”

The Boston Science Partnership has the potential to improve instruction for 14,759 students in grades 6-8 and 18,305 students in grades 9-12; as well as training for 442 full and part-time science teachers. Nationally, two-thirds to three fourths of students are taught science by teachers who did not attain a major or a minor in the subject.

Studies show that low-income and minority children have a much greater probability of having teachers who are unlicensed or teaching outside their fields. However, by the 2007-2008 school year the No Child Left Behind Act requires that all students be assessed on science, in addition to math and English. In Boston, fewer than 10 percent of students currently attain proficient or higher levels on state tests in science. Approximately 80 percent of the science teachers at the middle and high school levels require additional training and preparation to meet licensure requirements. By 2006, all science teachers will be required to meet highly qualified subject matter requirements.

The Boston Science Partnership will build on the Boston Public Schools’ record of success raising English and math achievement, the district’s model Collaborative Coaching and Learning strategy for teacher improvement, and a recently revised science program.  “Boston is at a turning point,” said UMass Boston Professor Hannah Sevian, a principal investigator for the project. “Coaching and teacher training are taking place at a district-wide level and a new standards-based science curriculum is in place. So the infrastructure to support high quality science teaching is ready.”

Sevian will work with fellow UMass Boston Professor Robert Chen of the College of Science and Mathematics, and Professor Arthur Eisenkraft, a national leader in science education. They will join Northeastern University’s Dr. Christos Zahopoulos and Boston Public Schools Science Director Marilyn Decker as the project leaders. “I am very excited about getting started on this project that should not only have a large impact on science education at UMass Boston, Northeastern University, and the Boston Public Schools, but also should serve as a national model for science education reform,” says Chen.

The project is also distinctive for its highly successful collaboration between the Graduate College of Education and the College of Science and Mathematics.  The deans of both colleges, Les Goodchild and Kenneth Sebens, are working in support of the team’s initiatives.