Quillayute Valley School District was pleased to receive a Learning and Leadership Grant from The NEA Foundation for the Improvement of Education for the 2003-04 school year specifically for grades K-8.  This $3000 grant allowed our teachers to learn how to teach Inquiry-Based Science while integrating it with reading and writing.  We were also able to purchase several sets of high-quality science non-fiction tradebooks which complemented our science kits and programs.  We were assisted in accomplishing this goal while participating in the LASER (Leadership Assistance in Science Education Reform) program sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). 

The LASER program trains districts to build continuous teacher learning in order to help students achieve a high standard of science knowledge and concepts.  We wove this learning into the fabric of our schools by expanding our LASER team to include more teachers eager to assume responsibility for enhancing their own science knowledge and skills.

Our NEA Foundation grant allowed us to provide inservice trainings and provide materials for teachers to change from being didactic, feeder-of-the-facts about science into teachers who help students question, find solutions to problems based on prior knowledge, and teach how science is done in the real world.  Using kits already in use in the district, inservices focused on the curriculum already at hand to show how to bring in true integration with reading and writing.  We also provided workshops on our state's new science assessment test (the WASL), and how to incorporate notebooks into science teaching.

We hoped to see students achieve scores indicating mastery on the state assessments for science. We saw good improvement in the results of the first year of state science testing for our 5th graders - our elementary school scored above the state average on this test.  In the 2nd year of testing,  our 8th grade scores were 8% higher than last year and our high school scores were 13% higher.

Our mid-year and end of the year assessments and surveys of teachers also showed long-term, collaborative behavior setting in, the training of trainers model being used effectively, and inquiry based science teaching taking root in most classrooms of science.  Integration of reading and writing were dramatic, especially in our middle school where our NEA grant was coupled with a Toyota Tapestry Grant linking science integration with literacy skills.  The use and training in how to use science non-fiction tradebooks in science to interest, assist and guide students was instrumental in helping raise scores in these key subject areas.

We will continue what this NEA Foundation grant has allowed us to start.  The improvement and enthusiasm of both the students and teachers is infective and too much of an exciting part of their learning to stop!