i3 PLTW Validation Grant Welcome! Dave Butler, CEO Stella Premo, Executive Director – Director of Education Programs

What is Project Lead the Way? Project Lead The Way Hands-on, activity/problem/project-based curriculum for elementary, middle and high schools Engaging STEM curriculum in five hands-on programs: Launch, Gateway, Biomedical Science, Computer Science and Engineering Aligned to Next Gen and Common Core State Standards

Project Lead the Way Current Statistics PLTW: 700,000 (aprox) students across the US 7,500+ school sites 50 states & District of Columbia 10,500 teachers across the country since Affiliate Universities 816 Schools in California 65+ Schools in the Capital Region Network

PLTW – Capital Region The Capital Region Project Lead the Way Network began in the greater Sacramento region in In an effort to support STEM education LEED/NextEd became the Northern California outreach hub for PLTW We started with about 10 schools in the network – we have grown the network to over 65 schools (elementary, middle and high schools combined)

Investing In Innovation Competition NextEd submitted a grant proposal to the Investing in Innovation (i3) Validation Competition entitled: An Experimental Research Design for STEM Education. The primary research question to be answered: Does Project Lead the Way provide a causal effect on students career trajectories in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics?

Why i3? Purpose: to fund rigorous academic research into promising best practices – improving outcomes in critical areas. NextEd is part of a prestigious group of organizations working with the US Dept. of Ed. Including: University of TX at Austin, University of Wisconsin, West ED and others Potential of being listed on the “What Works Clearinghouse” Potential opportunity for scale up funding

Winning/Leveraging the Grant This was a highly rated application and was awarded $5m Over $3m went directly to schools Leverage industry partnership for an additional $1.3m Intel, AT&T, Aerojet, SMUD, National PLTW, CDW-G and Gargani (the researcher)

The i3 focus The grant experiment is focusing on the Project Lead the Way Engineering Pathway Foundation Courses Introduction to Engineering Design™ (IED) Principles Of Engineering™ (POE) Specialization Courses School site choice Capstone Course Engineering Design and Development (EDD) All of these courses received UC A-G approval

The i3 Promise The grant experimental design promises to do the following: Provide each participating school with a brand new state-of-the-art computer lab Provide each participating school with fully paid professional development for every teacher involved in the experiment for the next four years Provide each participating school with support for the software, and supplies to carry out the PLTW curriculum

Statewide reach Participating Schools 38 schools collecting data 17 in Northern California 21 in Southern California 3 test sites in Northern California

Evaluation Mid-year 1 update Study cohort Randomized lists students assigned by Gargani to the Treatment (PLTW class) or Control group before school year start. In a few cohorts the control group is larger than the PLTW class due to robust recruiting. All students in these larger control groups are part of the study and must take the assessments.

Evaluation Assessments, Timelines and Obligations Treatment (PLTW): Years 1-4 in Fall and Spring Control: Year 1 Fall and Spring; Years 2-4 Spring only Schools must give assessments to both T and C within the testing window assigned All students randomized take the assessments, even students who drop the PLTW class

Evaluation Protecting the Cohort Key to this study is keeping assigned students in the PLTW pathway Especially schools who have small number of PLTW assigned students Follow-up is being done with PLTW assigned students through the year

Recent Visits Bob Bachmeier, PLTW Coordinator Recently visited 15 schools in Southern CA Observations/early stories Preparing for Northern CA visits

Q & A Discussions

Contacts Stella Premo, Executive Director, Director of Educational Programs Bob Bachmeier, PLTW Coordinator John Gargani Uda Olabarria Walker or

Thank You!!