Research Products

Policy Research Initiatives in Science Education (PRISE) is an innovative science education project which seeks to Improve Teaching and Learning in High School Science using a systems approach to link educational research with policy development. The overarching goal is to provide the State of Texas and the Nation with research findings that lead to the development of an articulated and coherent system of continuous professional career development for high school science teachers. This system would improve the quality of science teaching while making significant contributions to reducing the current national shortage of qualified high school science teachers.

Research Agenda

PRISE Research phases, questions, objectives and the five-year work plan reflect an ambitious approach to answering policy questions about the high school science teacher professional continuum (TPC) in Texas. Research phases roughly correspond to the five years of the project, which includes mixed methods approaches encompassing survey research, case study research and policy dialogue research. The ultimate goal of this research agenda is to describe the current state-of-the-state in terms of TPC in Texas, elucidate exemplars of successful and effective schools and teachers working within the existing TPC framework and provide the state of Texas with a number of policy alternatives that may be employed to influence the retention, and thus alleviate current shortages of high school science teachers in this state. While results specificially refer to the high school teacher professional continuum in Texas, methods for achieving these results can be generalized to other states investigating solutions to similar challenges.

Sampling Plan

The PRISE Research Agenda began in the fall of 2005 with a planning year. A sampling plan resulted that allows the results of survey work in 50 high school of Texas to be generalized to all 1,350 high schools in Texas that currently teach science. Fifty case studies of each high school will result from the research of the second and third years of the project.

Conceptual Framework

Teacher Professional Continuum (TPC) brings to mind a messy collection of terms: induction, intern, mentoring, mid-career, renewal, preparation, professional development, recruitment, retention, veteran teachers. As a set, these terms often share blurred meanings within the research literature. When the PRISE project began in Fall 2005, no coherent structure or model defined or differentiated the most important concepts, processes, and relationships existing between and among them in the TPC conceptual frame. The need for such a framework became apparent in the earliest stages of the PRISE Research Group's thinking about the research associated with the TPC of high school science teachers in Texas. The PRISE Research Group needed a conceptual framework to ground the pursuit of the project's research goals: to define what is, to describe what should be and to provide a list of policy alternatives regarding how to get there in recruiting, renewing and retaining high school science teachers in the state of Texas. White papers (see complete list and citations below) were prepared to define the terrain of the PRISE work.

White Papers (click on paper number to see the paper)

Research Presentations

Several research presentations have been made by the PRISE Research Group since the project began. These presentations include posters and presentations at state, regional and national professional meetings.

For More Information:

Sampling Plan

School Distribution Map

Scholarly Products

Teacher Professional Continuum (TPC)