THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT / THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY 12234 NYS Mathematics Science Partnership Program Curriculum, Instruction and Instructional Technology Team 320 Education Building Tel. (518) 474-5922 Fax (518) 473-4884 E-mail:  emscmsp@mail.nysed.gov                                    http://emsc32.nysed.gov/ciai/mst.html

New York State Mathematics Science Partnership Program

Programmatic
As mentioned in Update 1-01, professional development activities for your participants should total 30 hours for the period January to June 2005. Also please forward to me as soon as available your schedule of activities for our event calendar.

A Gold Star to the Hermon-Dekalb CSD/ Clarkson University Partnership for providing the information requested in my earlier communication (see Update 1-01).

Fiscal
The Education Department, in reviewing its fiscal policies for grants and grant contracts, has increased the dollar threshold for items that must be reported as equipment to be consistent with Federal guidelines.

Evaluation
The Department has awarded a contract to Compass Consulting Group to serve as the NYS MSP Statewide Evaluator. These contracted services are anticipated to begin in April 2005. The SED will be facilitating the connection of your local project evaluators with the Statewide Evaluator to provide technical assistance regarding local data collection efforts. To find out what other responsibilities the Statewide Evaluator will have, refer to the RFP for this contract in the Archived Information section of our website.

Until the Statewide Evaluator contract begins, local evaluation teams should review their data collection plans by examining the sample data collection form supplied by USDOE. In discussions with the state MSP program coordinators, USDOE staff has indicated this sample represents what will be collected from each individual project via an online submission process. This report will be due to USDOE within 30 days after the end of your projects first cycle of operation. More information to follow.

Resources
An effort at the federal level is to make connections between the National Science Foundation (NSF) MSP projects and the states’ MSP programs for the purpose of sharing experiences and successes. We will periodically identify opportunities that promote this idea. One of those examples is an activity sponsored by the NSF MSP project at Hofstra University. We encourage your participation if it is relevant to your project.

The NSF-funded Math/Science Partnership Project, MSTP: The Mathematics, Science, and Technology Partnership, in cooperation with the NSF Show-Me Center for Learning and Teaching in Middle Level mathematics is hosting a major conference at the Uniondale, Long Island Marriott on April 29-30, 2005. The expected attendance is 500 teachers, curriculum leaders, university disciplinary experts and education faculty, and school administrators. The conference focus is to showcase exemplary curriculum, pedagogy, and practice in middle school mathematics and to illustrate models for contextualizing mathematics across the middle school curriculum.

Featured presenters include Grant Wiggins (Understanding by Design); Dr. James Butterworth, Assistant Commissioner, NYSED Office of Regional School and Community Services; prominent mathematics educators including Dr. Elizabeth Philips and Dr. Glenda Lappan (Connected Math), Dr. Margaret Meyer (Math in Context), Dr. Rick Billstein (MATHThematics), and Emily Fagan (Mathscape).

NYSED mathematics associates will conduct a forum to discuss the changes to the K-8 mathematics standards, and the new 3-8 assessments. This is an opportunity for the State MSPs to collaborate with NSF MSP leaders to support one another's reform efforts. A curriculum showcase, vendor display, and teacher-to-teacher poster session are included.