Newsroom – California State University, Northridge

CSUN Receives $1 Million Grant to Develop Programs to Tackle Achievement Gap

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Oct. 26th, 2009) ―

Cal State Northridge, in partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District, has received a $1 million grant from the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) to help improve K-12 teaching in math and English/language arts.

The four-year Improving Teacher Quality (ITQ) grant was awarded to assistant professor of secondary education Ivan Cheng, who has developed a plan to improve the teaching of math in middle school by empowering teachers to think “outside the box” and collaboratively.

Cheng, who is certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, said his proposal is based on the 23 years he spent as a middle school and high school math teacher while with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).

“The idea is to empower teachers to work collaboratively across disciplines, tapping into innovative ideas and technology tools that they know will work but they have been afraid to try for fear of failure,” Cheng said. “Taking that fear of failure away can be liberating.”

The goal of CPEC’s 2009 Achievement Gap Initiative is to use professional development programs at middle schools that aim to close racial and ethnic achievement gaps. University faculty are expected to work with their partner school districts to improve content knowledge and effectiveness of middle school teachers. The grants also require rigorous evaluations to demonstrate how the projects affect student achievement.

Cheng will be working with teachers at Maclay, Pacoima and San Fernando middle schools. His project is based in part on a summer school program he has run with Project GRAD for the past five years at Maclay and San Fernando middle schools to help underperforming math students become algebra ready.

The summer school program created an environment, he said, where the “stakes were low” for the teachers.

“We created a situation where what [the teachers] did did not affect how they were seen by their administrators,” Cheng said. “The kids were not their regular kids. The kids had already failed the subject matter. The teachers couldn’t do any worse. As a result, the teachers felt liberated and free to do basically what they wanted to do as teachers without fear of repercussions.

“The program has been a great success. It’s absolutely amazing when the ‘light bulb’ goes on for the teachers and they realize that what they did in the summer program they can take to their own kids during the regular school year,’ he said. “What we are going to do is take that liberating feeling of summer program and apply it to the regular school year.”

A key component of the summer program’s success, Cheng said, was the facilitation of teacher collaboration in designing lesson plans based on the teachers’ daily monitoring of their students. Another component is shifting teacher thinking about how instruction is delivered.

“In particular, we are going to inject the use of technology,” he said. “There are some really nice tools available that can help teachers shift from relying on memorization to promoting inquiry. Applying inquiry is much more important in truly understanding mathematical concepts: ‘What happens when I do this? If I change this number will this happen?’ Exploring concepts, drawing conclusions and making generalizations are all part of math.

“Computing a numerical answer to something is not nearly as important as knowing what that answer means or how to get there,” Cheng said. “For too long, we’ve relied on ‘drills and kills.’ Now we need to promote critical thinking and reasoning.”

Cheng said another component of his plan is to incorporate English and language arts teachers into the collaboration.

“English and language arts teachers become consultants and sounding boards for ideas and creativity in the classroom,” he said. “They can work collaboratively in developing curriculum and lesson plans so that what happens in one subject can be supported in another, whether it’s spelling words or a class project.”

A critical component in his proposal, Cheng said, is training teacher leaders and administrators to become “instructional leaders so that they can sustain this kind of professional collaboration. It cannot come only from CSUN if it is going to last.

“We are here to get the process off the ground and build the capacity within the schools we are serving,” he said. “My vision is that four years from now, the principals and teacher leaders of each school will continue the effort on their own. And from their schools, the idea will spread.”

Cheng said his proposal draws from the years he spent with LAUSD.

“While I was in the district, nobody would listen to me. I was just another employee,” Cheng said. “With the title ‘professor’ added to my name, people are listening. One of the reasons I stepped out of the district was that I had a vision that I believed in firmly, and I am now back with the district to see that vision through.”

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