Annual Report - College of Education - Michigan State University

Major Research Projects
Literacy Achievement Research Center (LARC)
MSU Research Excellence Fund
$1.9 million
Nell K. Duke and Mary Lundeberg,
co-directors*
This center’s mission is to develop complex literacies across the lifespan through multidisciplinary
research. LARC draws on faculty expertise from within the College of Education
and throughout the university to conduct its key activities, which include producing and
disseminating high-quality, high-impact literacy research, catalyzing and leveraging external
funding for literacy research and sponsoring national and state conferences and symposia.
LARC has continued its partnership with the National Geographic Society to co-host a
cutting-edge Summer Institute on building content-area literacy skills. The summer 2008 theme
was Connecting Science and Literacy to Promote Student Success. This year also saw the
release of a book based on LARC’s 2006 Symposium: Meeting the Challenge of Adolescent
Literacy: Research We Have, Research We Need. A volume based on the 2007 symposium
is under development. Meanwhile, the center’s principal investigators continue to garner
national and international recognition. For example, Patricia Edwards was elected president
of the International Reading Association for 2009-10.
*A new LARC co-director was selected during the 2007-08 year. Douglas Hartman, a
former University of Connecticut professor and senior editor of the Journal of Literacy Research,
assumes the role starting fall semester 2008.
Promoting Rigorous Outcomes in Mathematics
and Science Education (PROM/SE)
National Science Foundation
$35 million
William Schmidt
PROM/SE, which completed its fifth year during summer 2008, is now planning for a
two-year extension to continue its efforts to improve mathematics and science education. The
project is based on an active partnership between MSU and five organizations representing
about 60 K-12 school districts in Michigan and Ohio. During the initial five years,
PROM/SE collected data in areas such as student achievement, instructional time, topic
coverage, teacher preparation and teachers’ level of confidence. This data has provided
an extensive base of information for measuring and analyzing all aspects of the intended,
implemented and attained curricula for mathematics and science. It has been used, working
with teachers, school district leaders, higher education institutions and state departments
of education, to address issues of improving standards, expectations, rigor, coherence,
instruction and achievement. PROM/SE also has provided focused professional development
for teachers in mathematics and science content and learning opportunities for principals,
curriculum directors and superintendents.
Participating school districts have been given the option of completing or continuing their
work with PROM/SE. During the extended timeline, PROM/SE will analyze data collected in
the fourth and fifth years to measure progress, provide curricular coherence institutes for school
district teams, assist school leadership teams to implement improved mathematics curricula
and work with a group of nationally recognized scientists to develop a new framework for
science education.
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