Up Next: An MSP Solicitation
The NSF's Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program is a research and development effort that supports innovative partnerships to improve K-12 student achievement in mathematics and science. MSP projects are expected to raise the achievement levels of all students and significantly reduce achievement gaps in the mathematics and science performance of diverse student populations.
In order to improve the mathematics and science achievement of the Nation's students, MSP projects contribute to the knowledge base for mathematics and science education and serve as models that have a sufficiently strong evidence base to be replicated in educational practice.
In this latest solicitation, NSF seeks to support six types of awards:
- Targeted Partnerships focus on studying and addressing issues within a specific grade range or at a critical juncture in education, and/or within a specific disciplinary focus in mathematics or the sciences;
- Institute Partnerships/Teacher Institutes for the 21st Century are designed to meet national needs for teacher leaders/master teachers who have deep knowledge of disciplinary content and are school- or district-based intellectual leaders in mathematics and science;
- MSP-Start Partnerships are for awardees new to the MSP program, especially from minority-serving institutions, community colleges and primarily undergraduate institutions, to support the necessary data analysis, project design, evaluation and team building activities needed to develop a full MSP Targeted or Institute Partnership;
- Phase II Partnerships for prior MSP Partnership awardees focus on specific innovative areas of their work where evidence of significant positive impact is clearly documented and where an investment of additional resources and time would produce more robust findings and results;
- Research, Evaluation and Technical Assistance (RETA) projects directly support the work of the Partnerships, especially by developing tools to assess teachers? growth in the knowledge of mathematics or the sciences needed for teaching, conducting longitudinal studies of teachers and their students who participate in the MSP projects, or engaging the national disciplinary and professional societies in MSP work; and
- Innovation through Institutional Integration (I3) projects enable institutions to think and act strategically about the creative integration of NSF-funded awards, with particular emphasis on awards managed through programs in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR), but not limited to those awards. For Fiscal Year 2008, proposals are being solicited in six EHR programs that advance I3 goals: CREST, ITEST, MSP, Noyce, RDE, and TCUP.
For information on this year's MSP program, see: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5756&org=NSF&sel_org=NSF&from=fund