A Final Case Study of SCALE Activities at California State University, Northridge: How Institutional Context Influenced a K–20 STEM Education Change Initiative

Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for noncommercial purposes by any means, provided that the above copyright notice appears on all copies. The research reported in this paper was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation to the University of Wisconsin–Madison (EHR 0227016) for a Mathematics and Science Partnership project called System-wide Change for All Learners and Educators of Wisconsin–Madison. Any opinions, findings, or conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies, WCER, or cooperating institutions. Executive Summary Institutions of higher education (IHE) play an important role in math and science education by providing undergraduate instruction, teacher training programs, and in-service training for K–12 teachers. The National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded System-wide Change for All Learners and Educators (SCALE) project sought to effect change in its partner IHEs by creating a transformative culture through cross-cultural working teams that operated at the intersections among K–12 districts, colleges of education, and colleges of mathematics, science, and engineering (SCALE, 2005). The SCALE goals for IHEs are as follows: 1. To improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduate education; 2. To improve collaboration between STEM and education faculty regarding preservice programs; 3. To improve collaboration between IHE faculty and K–12 districts regarding in-service training; and 4. To improve institutional policies and practices that support these activities. As part of the SCALE IHE case studies line of work, this paper provides findings on the effects of the SCALE project at the A cross-case analysis of the three IHE case studies will present a diagnostic approach to evaluating STEM education interventions in complex organizations. Methodology This qualitative case study addresses two interrelated challenges with studying and evaluating change processes in complex institutional environments. First, because reform efforts such as SCALE coexist with and seek to change diverse levels and elements of an institution, it is critical to understand the context in which a reform effort unfolds on reform implementation in both higher education and K–12 finds that when faced with policy directives, individuals frequently adapt them in the process of making sense of and applying them in local environments These research challenges are interrelated because local contextual factors shape the sense-making process, as individuals are inclined —if iii A Final Case Study of SCALE Activities at CSUN not required—to attend to contextual features of their organizations, especially the cultural …