a. Produce teacher leaders who will be experts in science content linked to the California Science Standards, who teach in primarily low-performing schools with high percentages of students from groups that are underrepresented in the sciences.

b. Produce teacher leaders who will be expert in inquiry-based lessons that properly use the scientific method, who teach in primarily low-performing schools with high percentages of students from groups that are underrepresented in the sciences.

CHANGES THAT WILL ENHANCE PARTICIPATION AND RETENTION OF STUDENTS FROM LOW-PERFORMING/HIGH-POVERTY SCHOOLS

Approximately 75% of the targeted Eisenhower teachers teach in schools with Academic Performance Index rankings of 1-4 out of 10 (i.e., the bottom two quintiles). These schools are mostly in inner-city and San Fernando Valley high-poverty areas. The teacher leaders trained in the Eisenhower program will implement exciting standards-based lessons and inquiry-based research projects in their classes and in colleague in-service workshops. This will mean that the students in these schools will participate in exciting standards-based lessons that will improve their science skills and interest in science, making it more likely that they will wish to continue their studies in science. We are constantly thinking about ways to track students to see whether this hypothesis is correct. We will attempt to work with our partner principals to obtain data on which science courses the students in the science classes of project teachers take one year after being in those classes, compared to students in classes of these same teachers the year prior to teacher participation in Eisenhower. This simple-sounding study, however, must be carefully controlled for many other variables that may confound results.