Investment in Innovation (i3) Pre-Application
Los Angeles Science Leadership Initiative (LASLI)
SIGNIFICANCE
Project overview
The Los Angeles Science Leadership Initiative (LASLI) is a partnership between Loyola
Marymount University (LMU), the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), North
Carolina State University (NCSU), and six teacher education professional organizations to
increase student achievement, particularly science literacy, in chronically low-performing urban
elementary schools. This will be accomplished through the LASLI goal of developing,
implementing, and evaluating principal and teacher STEM leadership programs designed to
prepare participants to be effective visionary leaders of low-performing STEM-focused
elementary schools in the LAUSD. The proposed program is based upon strong theory developed
by the Institute of Education Sciences and is contextualized by the four new standards-based
reform initiatives (Next Generation Science Standards; Common Core State Standards in Math
& English/ Language Arts; College, Career, and Civics Readiness Framework).
Pressing issues and standards reform
The terms “urban school” and “low performing school” are nearly synonymous in the
lexicon of American education. Nowhere is this truer than in the Los Angeles Unified School
District (LAUSD), the nation’s second-largest public school system, which serves nearly
665,000 students across 1,100 schools and has 85,000 employees. In 2011, almost half of all
LAUSD schools were identified as persistently low-performing by the California Department of
Education (CDE, 2012). Roughly half of all students in the tested grades (grades 2-11)
performed below proficient levels in English Language Arts and mathematics, and among lowincome students these percentages increased roughly 10% (CDE, 2012). In short, LAUSD is a
microcosm of nearly every issue existing in low performing urban schools. The issues are so
prevalent that many conclude they are too great to overcome. This conclusion is unacceptable, as
the lives of hundreds of thousands of Los Angelenos are at stake. Solutions must be found.
Potentially complicating matters, recently an increased attention to STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Math) in school visions has pressured policy makers, school
leaders, and teachers to make difficult choices around what to teach and, more importantly, what
not to teach. This is particularly true of elementary schools, as the subjects in which schools are
held accountable, mathematics and reading/language arts, are viewed as the only subjects that
truly matter. As a result, despite making STEM an ostensible priority, at best all but the M
(mathematics) of STEM continues to sit on the elementary curriculum backburner. In California,
for example, only about 10 percent of elementary students experience science instruction that
regularly engages them in the practices of science, 40 percent of teachers report that they spend
an hour or less teaching science each week, and 60 percent of districts have no staff dedicated to
elementary science (Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning [CFTL], 2011). Science
literacy reform efforts are, simply, doomed to fail if we continue to neglect the earliest stage
of the problem—effectively teaching science at the elementary level.
Today we are witnesses to broad-based educational reform, perhaps at levels not seen
since the Sputnik-era, as four closely related standards reform documents have recently been
published—the Next Generation Science Standards (NRC, 2013), the Common Core State
Standards in Mathematics as well as in English and Language Arts (NGACBP & CCSSO,
2010), and the College, Career, and Civics Readiness Framework (CCSSO, in press). The
intersection of the aforementioned standards and science literacy is quite explicit with the
Common Core ELA standards, which include “Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and
Technical Subjects.” The three big shifts in literacy include (1) building content knowledge
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through reading informational text; (2) reading, writing, and speaking grounded in textual
evidence, and (3) regular practice with complex text and academic vocabulary.
Particularly at the elementary level, school leaders and teachers can view standards
reform from a lens that identifies interdisciplinary cross-cutting concepts and inquiry process
skills as a way to develop students’ critical thinking, analysis, collaborative, and other noted 21st
century skills, all necessary components to developing literate students. Particularly within
STEM-focused schools, building vision and action plans that embrace the interdisciplinary
commonalities present in the aforementioned reform documents is a vital step to transforming
not only elementary science, but all subjects. Through proper implementation of these new
standards, it may be possible to develop elementary students’ science literacy knowledge and
skills, thereby improving their overall literacy and mathematics knowledge and skills.
Unique approach: Building upon recommendations for turning around low-performing schools
Turning around chronically low-performing schools is a complex process, and more
research on this subject is needed. Teacher effectiveness is, perhaps, the most important factor in
influencing achievement (Hanushek, Kain, & Rivkin, 2004); however, focusing solely on teacher
quality has not sufficiently improved teacher practice, nor has it addressed the crisis of lowperforming urban schools. The schools in these communites need solutions that raise the
academic achievement of all students. Transformation of these schools will require us to increase
the number of effective principals and teacher leaders1, particularly individuals capable of
leading instructional reform initiatives built around the dramatic changes brought on by
standards reform. Validity to this assertion is provided in the Institute of Education Sciences’
(Herman et al., 2008) Practice Guide, Turning Around Chronically Low Performing Schools.
For this project, the term “teacher leader” is meant to imply a formally identified grade-level teacher charged with facilitating
principled action to foster whole-school success. Teacher leaders in this project will serve as instructional coaches and learning
team facilitators within their school and across other schools in the project. (see Crowther et al., 2002; Killion & Harrison, 2006).
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Four recommendations are provided by IES: 1) Signal the need for dramatic change with strong
leadership, 2) maintain consistent focus on improving instruction, 3) make visible improvements
early in the school turnaround process, and 4) build a committed staff.
What is clear about the IES recommendations is that without strong visionary leadership,
schools will continue to underperform. Moreover, all four recommendations should be
implemented in tandem. Recently, the Virginia Initiative for Science Teaching and Achievement
(VISTA), a 2010 recipient of an Investing in Innovation (i3) Validation grant, has corroborated
these assertions. Research on this project’s implementation of a statewide initiative to train
school teachers, science coordinators, and science teacher educators has found that lack of
effectiveness at the school principal role prevents teacher leaders (“science coordinators”) and
teachers from affecting positive project outcomes, whereas the combination of effective
principals with well-trained teacher leaders and teachers yields positive outcomes (Whitworth &
Bell, 2013). In order for school reform to be achieved, it is clear that we need to train effective
principals (Leithwood et al, 2004) and teacher leaders (Jackson et al., 2010).
With standards reform potentially presenting an opportunity to leverage science literacy
for the purpose of increasing student learning outcomes across all subjects, researchers and
practitioners must reconsider how the IES recommendations should be applied in the preparation
of school leaders. This proposal, therefore, seeks to answer the research question, How can
elementary school leaders and teacher leaders be trained to 1) signal the need for the
dramatic change brought on by the standards reform movement, 2) maintain consistent
focus on improving instruction, particularly in science, 3) make visible improvements early
in the school turnaround process, and 4) build a staff committed to science literacy for all
students?
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Also made clear in the IES recommendations is the need to employ rigorous evaluation
measures to assess the effectiveness of any developed programs implementing the
recommendations; only limited evidence currently exists to support them. This proposed project
applies all of the IES recommendations and will rigorously evaluate their predicted effectiveness.
That said, the Los Angeles Science Leadership Initiative (LASLI) is unique in that it prepares
school principals and teacher leaders to proactively implement standards reform initiatives and,
in particular, utilize students’ scientific literacy as the driving force to instruction in all subjects
at the elementary level. Therefore, the overall goal of the LASLI is to develop, implement, and
evaluate a formal principal and teacher leadership program designed to prepare
participants to be effective visionary leaders of chronically low-performing, STEM-focused
elementary schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
PROJECT DESIGN
The Los Angeles Science Leadership Initiative (LASLI) has three core objectives which
directly address Absolute Priority 2, Improving Low Performing Schools, focusing
specifically on Priority Area 2a, Recruiting, developing, or retaining highly effective staff,
specifically teachers, principals, or instructional leaders, to work in low-performing
schools. The objectives are as follows:
Objective 1:

Design and develop a 34-unit Masters in STEM Administration program and a
15-unit STEM Teacher Leader Certificate program, focused on developing school
leaders for chronically low-performing STEM-focused elementary schools.
Outcomes: The project team collaboratively designs and develops programs that
sequence courses to address the IES recommendations by being learner-centered and
experiential, giving candidates a deep conceptual understanding of standards reform.
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Communities of practice are built, as principals and teacher leaders from all grades
participate in courses and plan for school change with each other.

Needs Addressed: In order for school leaders to effectively maintain focus on improving
instruction, they must a have deep understanding of current standards reform. The
developed communities of practice provide principals and teacher leaders with cohesive
support for signaling the need for the dramatic changes required by standards reform.
Objective 2:

Recruit and train 8 highly qualified candidates to serve as principals and 42
highly qualified candidates to serve as teacher leaders at 6 LAUSD STEMfocused elementary Pilot Schools.2
Outcomes: The project actively recruits well-qualified candidates to develop as
leadership teams for STEM-focused school initiatives focused on improving instruction
in science literacy, which will, in turn, enhance the quality of teaching in all subjects.

Needs Addressed: Teams of highly-effective principals and teacher leaders are needed in
low-performing urban schools. This project trains and places principal and teacher leader
teams in high-need LAUSD Pilot Schools.
Objective 3:

Conduct research to determine what makes the most significant difference in
helping principals, teacher leaders, and students learn.
Outcomes: A rigorous research and evaluation model provides much needed evidence to
determine how effective the IES recommendations are in turning around low-performing
urban schools.
Needs Addressed: Little experimental or quasi-experimental research has been performed
to validate the IES recommendations. The project takes an important step as it investigates
the effects of these recommendations as schools implement standards-based reforms.
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LAUSD Pilot Schools are a network of non-charter public schools that have autonomy over budget, staffing, governance,
curriculum and assessment, and the school calendar, which allows them to operate with greater flexibility. Pilot Schools were
created to be models of educational innovation and to serve as research and development sites for effective urban public schools.
Recruiting and developing leadership teams for 6 Pilot Schools will require a total of 6 principals and 36 teacher leaders (one per
grade, K-5). To account for potential attrition, 8 principals and 42 teachers will be recruited and trained.
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In keeping with absolute priority 2a, LASLI is designed to increase the quantity and
quality of science teaching in chronically low performing urban schools by identifying,
recruiting, developing, and retaining highly effective principals and grade-level teacher leaders
for these schools. LASLI will enlist its LEA, the LAUSD Intensive Support and Innovation
Center (ISIC), to identify and recruit participants for random assignment to treatment or control
groups. Treatment principals and teacher leaders will receive no-cost, intensive professional
development and become part of a targeted and collaborative community of practice. The
LAUSD ISIC will oversee the six Pilot Schools selected to participate in this project. Research
will be conducted to verify predictions that the principals and teachers receiving the treatment
will be retained in the profession and have students with higher academic achievement.
The design and development of this professional development program will be led by
LMU’s Center for Math and Science Teaching and Institute of School Leadership and
Administration, in collaboration with the project’s LEA, the LAUSD ISIC. Additionally, content
experts from collaborative partners NCSU and six major teacher educational professional
organizations3 will aid in the design and development of the Masters in STEM Administration
program, of which 15 units will satisfy requirements for the STEM Teacher Leadership
Certificate. An advisory board that includes lead authors of each of the four standards-reform
documents will provide oversight of developed program materials and activities.
The effectiveness of LASLI activities, particularly principal and teacher leader
effectiveness, will be determined through a rigorous evaluation system that uses a variety of
measures on principal and teacher growth and effectiveness, including data on student academic
achievement and growth. An evaluation plan will be provided in the full application.
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College and University Faculty Assembly (Social Studies), Association for Science Teacher Education, Association of
Mathematics Teacher Educators, Conference on English Education, Society for Information Technology in Teacher Education,
National Association for the Education of Young Children.
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