Research for Better Schools

Recent Technical Assistance Projects

Title: Mid-Atlantic Regional Consortium for Mathematics and Science Education

Sponsor/Funder: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education

Target Audience: Mathematics and science teachers, supervisors, administrators, professional developers, policymakers, service providers, and members of the community

Collaborating Agencies: Mid-Atlantic state departments of education, school districts, schools, intermediate service agencies, professional associations, informal science organizations, and universities; Eisenhower Network members: ENC, TERC, SERVE, NWREL, McREL, AEL, SEDL, NCREL, PREL, and LPA; and businesses, foundations, school improvement projects, and other members of the community

Dates: 1992 - 2005

Description: RBS operated the Mid-Atlantic Eisenhower Regional Consortium for Mathematics and Science Education from October 1992 through September 2005, serving Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia.

The focus of the Eisenhower Consortium program was on providing intensive professional development and technical assistance to educators based on effective mathematics and science curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices, and giving a heavy emphasis to meeting the needs of groups that are traditionally underserved by mathematics and science education improvement activities.

Four kinds of in-person services were delivered - professional development workshops for school participants, regional and state leadership conferences, technical assistance to schools and other education organizations, and intensive services to schools. In addition, services through four large-scale media were delivered - the Currents print newsletter, electronic media including the Riptides e-mail newsletter and an extensive Web site, dissemination of R&D products, and Eisenhower demonstration and access centers.

Outcomes: In-person services were provided to approximately 2,000 teachers and administrators each year, with 70 or more percent of participants coming from high needs school environments. The Consortium delivered each issue of its Currents newsletter to almost 40,000 educators in the region, offering improvement information and thousands of free resources. The Consortium Web site was another means for large-scale client contact, registering over 800,000 page requests in recent years.

Consortium activities were extensively documented and evaluated through internal and third-party evaluators based on specific objectives, indicators, and benchmarks of performance. Each year, the Consortium met most or all of the benchmark standards for the ten of the U.S. Department of Education Performance Indicators.

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