Evaluation of STEM Connects: Enhancing Teacher Quality and Student Proficiency

The goals of this project are to:
1. provide 30 teachers with professional development in evidence-based practices, including contextual teaching and learning strategies, differentiation, balanced assessment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

2. increase students’ achievement in mathematics and science as measured by WKCE data and benchmark assessments

3. develop one STEM integrated curriculum unit each year focused on a career cluster aligned to the standards, and

4. build strong collaborative relationships among K-12 teachers, higher education faculty, and career cluster business partners to foster sustainability.

Project activities include a STEM Connects Summer Academy, professional development networking sessions, on-site coaching and modeling, and peer coaching.

The evaluation includes collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data to determine the project's outcomes and impact; learning which components were successful and which may require revision or elimination; and describing the conditions under which the most favorable results occurred.

Formative evaluation will include daily feedback from participants in summer institutes, evaluations of summer institutes and networking sessions, study group progress reports, and documentation of in-class observations. Summative evaluation will include statistical significance testing to analyze results of pre- and post-tests of teacher content knowledge as well as student performance and other evaluation data.