INCREASING PROFICIENCY IN MIDDLE SCHOOL STEM EDUCATION THROUGH THE GEOSCIENCES AND INTEGRATING LITERACY STRATEGIES

Increasing science and language literacy are critical components for improving STEM education. FCAT scores in Polk County, Florida, revealed low levels of proficiency in middle school science. We wondered how the students would achieve proficiency if their teachers were not proficient. In response, we developed the Accelerated STEM Academic Pipeline Program (ASAP) to improve teacher pedagogical content knowledge in science and mathematics. We were awarded a grant from the Helios Foundation to provide four integrated STEM graduate courses for 96 teachers in Polk County Schools. In the first year of implementation Polk County Schools shifted Earth Science to 8^th grade; the majority of the science teachers participating in the ASAP program. The 4 courses are: 1) Earth Science Content, 2) Earth Science Inquiry, 3) Literacy in STEM Education, and 4) Integrated STEM Education. The ELL population increased from 4.6% in 2002 to 10.2% in 2011. To meet the needs of ELL and low reading level students we integrated strategies for improving language literacy in every course and focused on implementation in the Literacy in STEM course. Previous work in Alexandria City Public Schools, Virginia, indicated that poor performance on standardized exams for ELL students were related to their ability to read and comprehend test questions. How can the students do well on the standardized tests if they don’t understand what they are being asked? Literacy strategies applied are founded in the Sheltered Instruction Operation Protocol (SIOP) model. The science content in each course is aligned with the Florida core science standards and is coordinated with the county science supervisor. We are testing the impact of integrating literacy skills for science and languages into professional development of science and math teachers to see if it will increase the number of students who are proficient.