A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

SAHE-grantee Management of Eisenhower-assisted Activities

SAHE grantees are subject to the same provisions for alignment, continuous improvement, and targeting that districts must follow. However, SAHE grantees also are subject to some additional requirements or guidelines. In particular, the 1994 reauthorization emphasizes the importance of coordination between SAHE grantees and districts in planning and providing professional development. Each SAHE grantee is required to enter into an agreement with one or more districts for the provision of professional development. Further, SAHE-grantee projects are shaped by the priorities and guidelines that the SAHE sets in structuring its competition for the Eisenhower awards.^[26]

• SAHE grantees' coordination with districts and continuous improvement efforts lead to higher quality professional development.
• SAHE grantees that coordinate more extensively with districts (e.g., use feedback mechanisms, support and extend district activities, co-fund and involve districts in planning, implementing and monitoring) provide professional development that spans longer amounts of time compared to SAHE grantees that engage in less coordination with districts.
• Coordination with districts also has a positive effect on the use of strategies for continuous improvement, which, in turn, increases the active learning opportunities provided in SAHE-grantee activities.
• Coordination also is related to greater targeting through its effect on continuous improvement.

These results for coordination parallel those found for the district sample.

• SAHE grantees report low levels of implementation of some types of coordination with districts but high levels of most continuous improvement strategies.
• SAHE grantees work closely with districts in several ways, such as communicating with district staff and using district needs assessments, but report low levels of other key components of coordination, such as co-funding and working with the Eisenhower coordinator.
• SAHE grantees report moderately high levels of engagement in most continuous improvement efforts, such as using state indicators, conducting needs assessments and evaluations; few SAHE grantees, however, use district indicators in designing their Eisenhower activities.

These findings suggest that, although the average quality of SAHE-grantee activities are high on some dimensions (e.g., duration and content focus), quality could be further improved by strengthening the coordination between SAHE grantees and districts, and giving more emphasis to district indicators.

• On average, SAHE grantee projects in education departments offer higher-quality activities on several dimensions than projects in mathematics/science departments.
• Education departments sponsor professional development activities that last more than twice the number of hours and span a longer time period than activities sponsored by mathematics/science departments.
• Education departments engage in more types of coordination with the districts from which they draw their teachers, and they place more emphasis on continuous improvement than do mathematics/science departments.
• Education department projects are especially strong when housed in research/doctoral universities, where they are more likely to put a strong focus on content and provide numerous opportunities for active learning.

The superiority of professional development provided through education departments, in contrast with mathematics/science departments, may be due to the fact that education departments have greater expertise in student and teacher learning of subject matter, as well as experience in coordinating with practitioners. Faculty in these departments are the main contributors to the literature on effective professional development in mathematics and science. Projects in mathematics/science departments, on the other hand, have a strong content focus. Others have noted that, in the training of teachers, quality might be enhanced by better collaboration between educators and scientists. Apparently, the same can be said for continuing teacher education in the form of Eisenhower professional development. Each type of department brings unique strengths to designing and delivering professional development that could be complementary in meaningful collaboration.

[District Management of Eisenhower-assisted Activities ]

[Implications for Professional Development]