North Cascades and Olympic Science Partnership

Principles of the Partnership

Principle #1: Organizing Principle: The project is organized and managed to achieve its goals on time and within the budget.

The NCOSP leadership team will operate with clear expectations, open communication, and flexible support.
  • The Management Team shall develop a job description for each individual role and a charge for each working group that includes expected outcomes and schedules. The management team will review these annually with the relevant partners. Each working group establishes operating norms for meetings and a protocol for online communications.
  • Information is easily accessible and is shared with all partners in a timely manner. Communication voids are filled via conference calls and emails.
  • The Management Team will communicate clear guidelines for actions and the use of partnership resources. However, there will be flexibility to account for local conditions and to respond to new ideas and opportunities.
  • A bank of available resources (support), successful models, and available expertise is assembled and disseminated to all partners.
  • Outcomes drive all activities and assessments.
Partnership participants are responsible for maintaining accountable budgets and keeping careful records.
  • All partners will have a clear understanding of their budget and regularly report their use of resources to the management team.
  • The Management Team regularly reports on the budget status to the leadership team including planning for future years.
  • Working groups shall track their activities in an on-line database.
Partnership participants will conduct fair and credible evaluation and feedback.
  • The partnership has clear evaluation criteria and plans. It collects and analyzes relevant information.
  • Results from the evaluation and analysis are openly shared as feedback to impact both short and long-term planning and actions by working groups and the leadership and management teams.


Principle #2: Research Principle: Actions will be planned and modified based on the best research. Where no prior research is available, careful research will be designed and carried out.

NCOSP activities are informed by external research.
  • Research is sought as a first step in answering and generating new questions.
  • The leadership team and/or all members of the partnership read research which has broad relevance to the goals of NCOSP.
  • Relevant research is critically analyzed and discussed in leadership and working group meetings.
  • Research is consulted in making decisions.
  • The use of research to inform practice is explicitly modeled for partnership groups.
When needed, internal research is conducted to inform NCOSP activities.
  • Reports from the evaluation team are used to inform all NCOSP activities which have been evaluated at some stage in their development.
  • When research needs or interests are identified, help from the evaluation and/or research teams is sought.
  • At least one member of each stakeholder group which has identified a research need or interest will work closely with the evaluation and/or research teams to carry out the research.
  • Research will be carried out according to guidelines for quality scholarship and will use methods appropriate to the question(s) investigated.
Relevant external research is communicated to appropriate stakeholders.
  • When an extensive need for prior research is identified, literature reviews will be written and published on the website.
  • Written products cite references to relevant research when appropriate.
Results from internal research are communicated broadly.
  • Results of internal research will be disseminated via the NCOSP website, leadership team meetings and/or other venues where the people of interest are present.
  • Where research is of interest to stakeholders outside of NCOSP, results from internal research will be disseminated via journals, books, conferences, websites, and/or other outlets to the broader community.


Principle #3: Learning Principle: Everyone in the project is a learner.

Knowledge-Centered

All learning is focused on rigorous, accessible, relevant, and developmentally appropriate content.
  • Content is selected to promote depth of understanding of a few topics over superficial understanding of several.
  • Content is appropriate to the background, experience and needs of the learners.
  • Connections are continually made between past learning, future learning goals, �real-world� applications and intended content.
Learner-Centered

Instruction design and implementation is informed by students� prior knowledge and experiences.
  • Instruction builds deeper and more accurate understanding from the prior knowledge that learners bring.
  • Instruction offers opportunities for learners to reflect on their developing knowledge.
  • Instruction is responsive to the perspectives offered by the cultures, gender, special needs, etc. of all learners.
Assessment Centered

Deep content knowledge allows
regular and routine assessment to develop and monitor understanding of the learner(s) and inform instruction.
  • Assessments focus on deep, conceptual understanding of content, and not only on procedures or facts.
  • Assessments make student thinking visible to both teachers and students.
  • Assessments lead to instructional changes that ensure learners have the opportunity to revise and improve their thinking.
Community Centered

Learning communities offer all members the opportunity to learn
from one another and support their continuous improvement.
  • Learning communities engage and excite learners around relevant content.
  • Learning communities foster intellectual rigor, constructive criticism, and challenging of diverse ideas.
  • Learning communities convey consistent


Principle #4: Equity Principle: There are clear, high, and realistic expectations for all learners, regardless of differences, in an inclusive, supportive environment.

Partnership participants focus on the success of all learners.
  • When possible, research will include a focus on issues of diversity (ex: socio-economic status, gender, ethnicity, culture, special needs, etc.).
  • All partners will actively pursue opportunities to enhance their knowledge of differences and understanding of their personal perception of diversity issues.
  • Partner�s actions reflect a commitment to change.
  • Partners use varied assessment instruments that accurately measure the needs of diverse learners.
  • On-going data collection measures growth in diverse learners.
  • Partnership will supply tools to accomplish these objectives.
Partnership participants reflect diversity in society.
  • Active recruitment of varied participants with expertise in diversity is encouraged.
  • Awareness of diversity issues guides the selection and formation of partnership groups.
  • Efforts are made to recruit/retain future teachers that reflect the diversity of K-12 students.
Partnership participants collaborate with related educational partners whose focus is to meet the needs of underrepresented populations.
  • All partnership entities are encouraged to participate in professional development that focuses on issues of diversity amongst all learners.
  • Networking with a variety of entities outside the partnership to share resources and expertise. (ie., Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA), tutoring programs within Woodring College of Education, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Center for Educational Pluralism (CEP), etc.)


Principle # 5: Collaboration Principle: NCOSP is a true partnership. Each partner contributes to and benefits from achieving the goals.

Shared Purpose, Responsibility, and Accountability

All partners understand and value a common vision for science education and share accountability for realizing partnership goals.
  • A shared vision provides moral purpose that all partners recognize and embrace.
  • The purpose, direction, and desired outcomes for all goals are understood by all partners.
  • All partners deliver what they promise, when they promise it to ensure that the desired outcomes are achieved.
  • All partners share the responsibility for data collection and evaluation.
Inclusive of Diverse Stakeholders

The partnership embraces, includes, and enhances diversity in all partnership groups and activities.
  • The partnership takes advantage of the expertise of all partners and seeks external expertise where needed.
  • Partnership diversity includes different roles, institutions, geographic locations, races/ethnicities, cultures, and genders.
  • The partnership takes action to proactively enhance diversity throughout the project. Effective Communication Multiple communication channels foster effective interactions among individuals and organizations within and beyond the partnership.
  • Communication with partners strengthens
Mutual Investment and Benefit

Sharing resources strategically yields maximum benefits that no individual partner could efficiently achieve independently.
  • All partners contribute time, energy, knowledge, expertise, and financial and material resources.
  • Shared resources generate new knowledge about science learning and teaching and improved professional, instructional, and educational outcomes for all partners.



Relevant Citations: Principle #2

Anthony E Kelly; Richard A Lesh. Handbook Research Design in Mathematics and Science Education. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc: Mahwah, N.J., 2000.

John Bransford; James W. Pellegrino; Suzanne Donovan. How People Learn: Bridging Research andPractice. National Academy Press: Washington, D.C., 2000.

Sharan B. Merriam. Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, 2001.

Richard M. Jaeger, ed. Complementary Methods for Research in Education, 2nd ed. AERA: Washington, D.C., 1997.


Relevant Citations: Principle #3

American Association for the Advancement of Science. (1993). Benchmarks for Science Literacy. Washington, DC: Oxford University Press.

Bellingham Public Schools. (2004) What�s Essential? Seven Essential Strategies for Powerful Teaching and Learning. Bellingham, WA: Bellingham Public Schools.

National Research Council. (1996). National Science Education Standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

National Research Council. (1999). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

National Research Council. (2001). Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Weiss, I.R., Pasley, J.D., Smith, P.S., Banilower, E.R., Heck, D.J. (2003). Looking Inside the Classroom: A study of K12 Mathematics and Science Education in the United States. Chapel Hill, NC: Horizon Research Inc.


Relevant Citations: Principle #4

Hill, Howard D. (1989). Effective Strategies for Teaching Minority Students. Bloomington, IN: National Educational Service

Johnson, Ruth S. (1996). Setting Our Sights: Measuring Equity in School Change. Los Angeles, CA: The Achievement Council

Banks, James A. Teaching Strategies for Ethnic Studies. 2nd ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1979).

MESA State Teacher Conference Notebook. (August, 2004). University of Washington. Seattle, WA.

Kuykendall, Crystal. (1992). From Rage To Hope, Strategies for Reclaiming Black & Hispanic Students. Bloomington, Indiana: National Education Service.

Lynch, Eleanor W. & Hanson, Marci J. Developing Cross-Cultural Competence. 2nd ed. (Baltimore, Maryland. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 1998).


Relevant Citations: Principle #5

Hord, S. 1986. A Synthesis of Research on Organizational Collaboration. Educational Leadership Volume 43: 22-26.

National Network of Eisenhower Regional Consortia and Clearinghouse. What Experience Has Taught Us About Collaboration. Retrieved December 2004 from Eisenhower Network: http://www.mathsciencenetwork.org/collaboration.pdf

Essex, N.L. 2001. Effective School-College Partnerships: A Key to Educational Renewal and Instructional Improvement. Education 121: 732-736.

Trubowitz, S. 1986. Stages in the Development of School-College Collaboration. Educational Leadership Volume 43: 18-21.

 

 

 

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