The South Carolina Professional Development Initiative (SCPDI)The South Carolina Professional Development Initiative (SCPDI) is a program that can provide students in grades K—8 equitable access to learning the SC Curriculum Standards in Mathematics and Science through the use of innovative curriculum materials in mathematics and science. These curriculum materials differ from conventional textbook lessons in that:

• concepts are approached through an inquiry model grounded in a learning cycle;
• concepts are developed by teaching a few “big ideas” as an integrated whole and not as a series of isolated facts, skills, and procedures;
• strong emphasis is placed on solving problems through processes of reasoning and communication; and,
• development is based on cognitive research about how students learn.

A number of SC districts have selected curriculum materials with these characteristics. The SCPDI offers two institutes to support the teachers as they implement these materials: the Science Professional Development Institute (SPDI) and the Mathematics Professional Development Institute (MPDI).  Each institute is a series of three to four two-day sessions which are offered over an extended period of time.  The long-term professional development supports teachers in deepening their own content knowledge, broadening their understanding of how students learn these concepts, and developing instructional practices that support students in attaining proficiency in mathematics or science.

Both institutes have a similar structure.  For example, in one two-day session, the first day of the SPDI addresses areas such as inquiry, a Learning Cycle, and literacy—all through collaborative learning.  The first day of the MPDI addresses the interconnections of the process and content standards of mathematics, inquiry, and the writing process—all through collaborative learning.  The second day of each institute allows teachers to learn about a specific unit or module of a curriculum project through direct immersion into the module.   This deepens their knowledge of the mathematics or science content within the unit as well as the understanding of the overall design and flow of the components of the curriculum.   Strategies learned from the previous day are applied to a grade-specific module or unit.

Each two-day session builds upon the previous session, and the sessions are purposefully offered over an extended period of time.  This not only allows teachers adequate time to implement the curriculum units, but also allows them to collect samples of student work that can be analyzed and discussed in subsequent institute sessions.  All of the sessions are structured to authentically integrate strategies to support literacy into the mathematics or science content and processes.

The ultimate goal of the SCPDI is to offer a quality mathematics and science professional development program across the state.  The pilot of the MPDI began for teachers of grade four in the summer of 2005 and will continue in the summer of 2006.   A pilot for the SPDI is scheduled to begin in January 2006.   Upon full and proper implementation of the SCPDI, the teachers of South Carolina will be prepared to face the challenges of educating our most valuable resource - our children.