Institute for School Partnership

WUSTL’s Institute for School Partnership is committed to evolution education as part of a sound K-12 science curriculum, and it kicks off its second annual Darwin Day celebration Friday and Saturday, Feb. 7 and 8, with workshops for teachers and students. Darwin Day is celebrated internationally on or around Feb. 12, Darwin’s birthday, as a celebration of science and humanity. Highlighting the weekend on the WUSTL campus: a visit from alum Sean B. Carroll, PhD, vice president for science education at Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Women are underrepresented in the important fields of science, technology, engineering and math — minority women even more so. To help close the gender gap, Washington University will sponsor an innovate new charter school: the Hawthorn Leadership School for Girls, the first single-sex STEM charter school in St. Louis.

Tours of the MySci Investigation Station housed at the MySci Resource Center were in full force Nov. 19 at the latest event of the STL PREP (Perception, Reality, Engagement and Partnership) orientation series. The MySci Resource Center hosted a learning session for WUSTL faculty and staff called “Impacting K-12 Education.”

A unique, long-term partnership between Washington University and the Hazelwood School District is showing eye-popping, unprecedented success in elementary and middle school science test scores — and in the process providing a roadmap for other districts to follow. The district saw scores on the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) tests increase 22.4 percentage points for fifth graders, and 12 percentage points for 8th graders over a five-year period beginning in 2008, the year it began a collaboration with WUSTL’s Institute for School Partnership.

This summer, 75 teachers from five St. Louis area school districts and two charter schools spent two intensive weeks on the Washington University in St. Louis campus kicking off a yearlong professional development program called STEM Teacher Quality Initiative.

Now that the Next Generation Science Standards have been developed and released, the real work begins: Helping states implement the standards. WUSTL’s Institute for School Partnership, under the leadership of Victoria L. May, assistant dean of Arts & Sciences and executive director, is taking an active role in helping with that implementation – especially in its home state of Missouri.

Jamie Jordan, principal of Brittany Woods Middle School in the University City School District, accepts one of 20 “What’s Right With the Region!” awards from Focus St. Louis May 9. WUSTL is a key partner with Brittany Woods through the Institute for School Partnership, which conducts training and outreach programs at the school, and the Brown School, where the middle school is part of its urban education initiative.

The next generation science standards have been released and Washington University in St. Louis is playing significant roles. Michael Wysession, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences, was among the 41-member writing team who helped write the standards. And WUSTL’s Institute for School Partnership (ISP) is poised to help schools implement them in the St. Louis region.

Washington University in St. Louis’ Institute for School Partnership (ISP) and its signature science education program, MySci, take a major step forward Monday, Feb. 18, when they open the MySci Resource Center at 6601 Vernon Ave. Refurbished with the help of a $2.2 million grant from the Monsanto Fund, the MySci Resource Center becomes the nerve center of the ISP, WUSTL’s signature effort to strategically improve teaching and learning within the K-12 education community in the St. Louis region. ​

Washington University in St. Louis’ Institute for School Partnership has received a $2.2 million grant from the Monsanto Fund to take the institute’s cornerstone program, MySci, to the next level. In its eighth year serving the St. Louis community, MySci’s mission is to cultivate the region’s next generation of scientists by engaging elementary students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) through interactive learning experiences and creative curriculum.