Status Report to Congress
Pat Jonas (tsmart@rapidnet.com)
Thu, 3 Sep 1998 09:31:55 -0600 (MDT)
I sent the following information to A. Kapur. I recently received more
information from you through the ra-equity@list. If there is something we
could do, please let us know. Thanks!
>
>>Melanie Flatt, Director of Teaching SMART, attended this year's NCSEE
Conference in Kansas City. She was very interested in supporting and
contributing to the Congress report on the status of educational equity for
women and girls. I visited with Gloria Smith-Rockhold about assisting her in
reporting for South Dakota. She emailed me with the information you sent
her and felt it would be helpful for us to email you additional information
concerning our program.
>>
>>To better assist you, here is a brief description of Teaching SMART. We
are a staff development program for 3-5 grade teachers which promotes gender
equity in education. Participating teachers receive training and technical
support for three years. We focus primarily on teaching strategies that
promote equity in the classroom and encourages teachers to teach science
with a hands-on approach. By the end of the three years, they have not only
changed how they teach science, but have changed their teaching methods in
all curricula areas so they can reach the whole class rather than just half
of their class.
>>
>>Extensive evaluation studies have been made of Teaching SMART for five
years. The results have shown that after particpating in Teaching SMART for
one year, students in grades 3, 4, and 5 have demonstrated significant
increases in the following areas (increases are further amplified when
comparerd to survey data on control group students):
>>
>>*their confidence in their science skills and abilities;
>>*their beliefs that women can do science studies and science careers;
>>*their beliefs that a variety of jobs and careers can be done by both men
and women; and
>>*the number and/or type of extracurricular science activities they have done.
>>
>>If we can be of help for the congress report, please let us know. We
could send you a summary of the evaluation results, a summary of our
program, or actual comments made from students and teachers. Please let us
know by writing or calling us at:
>>
>>Teaching SMART
>>Attn: Patricia Jonas or Richard Steere
>>P.O. Box 2813
>>Rapid City, SD 57709
>>1-800-529-1400
>>email: tsmart@rapidnet.com
>>
>>
>>Patricia Jonas
>>
>