Research and Results
PROM/SE Process
PROM/SE is a data-driven project. All project activities are developed out of the needs identified through the gathering of an extraordinary amount of detailed, curriculum-sensitive baseline data. This includes testing some 250,000 - 300,000 students, having approximately 7,000 teachers fill out two questionnaires, having some 600 principals fill out a questionnaire, and having nearly 60 school districts fill out two questionnaires.
Once compiled and analyzed, PROM/SE will share this information in district and school reports. The first wave of reports were shared with Associates and their teaching colleagues at the Summer Mathematics Academy in 2004.
Currently we are working with Associates and district level administrators to interpret the data and to make very detailed action plans at the building level for improving the results in mathematics and science learning.
This means that teachers will have unprecedented access to information about their students, their instructional program and materials, and state standards. Additionally, teachers will have information on mathematics and science education in the countries that perform highest in international comparisons of student achievement. This information will enable teachers to identify specific challenges in their school and district, and to conjecture reasons for and design solution to these challenges. Support from the PROM/SE partnership will help teachers implement changes in the classroom, building and district, and to gather, analyze and interpret data about the effects of those changes.
The difference is in the data
Using data is often so fundamental to our lives that we are hardly conscious of it. Something as commonplace as buying shoes, for example, involves collecting and analyzing data across a number of issues. What kind of shoes do I need? Where and when will I wear them? Are they available in my size? Do they fit me well? Are they the right price? A great price isn't a good buy if the shoes don't fit.
PROM/SE takes the same approach to efforts to improve mathematics and science education. To be effective, new approaches need to fit your circumstances. This is why PROM/SE begins with exceptionally detailed data on student performance- much richer data than is typically provided by state assessments. PROM/SE goes much further, providing data on the important factors of curriculum, classroom instruction, student and teacher backgrounds and school administration.
The goal is to present teachers and administrators with the fullest possible picture of their particular educational context.
The PROM/SE belief is that better, more precise data will enable a teacher to make better-informed decisions about what their students need in order to achieve, and what each teacher needs in terms of organization and professional development to help them do it.
Through PROM/SE, teachers and administrators in participating schools will have unprecedented access to extremely rich student and context data at the building and district level, across the partnership, and at the national and international level. They will also have comparative data on instructional approaches and time spent on specific sub-topics that can help guide them in choosing how best to focus their efforts to improve student performance.