lsi_annualreport_2011

L E A R N I N G S Y S T E M S I N S T I T U T E2

Strength in NumbersIt has been a busy, rewarding year for faculty, students and staff in the six centers that

comprise LSI. We were engaged in 58 projects, including 15 new grants and contracts totaling

$90 million. From Jacksonville to Jakarta, we applied our expertise to improving teaching,

learning and human performance through rigorous research. We saw years of labor bear fruit

with the launching of the Mathematics Formative Assessment System (page 3); we watched

the birth of a spinoff that will put LSI-developed training materials into the hands of the

security personnel who protect our nation’s seaports; and we launched full force into an array

of studies on reading comprehension funded by $26 million from the U.S. Department of

Education (page 4).

Throughout this annual report, we use the term “partnership” to describe a multidisciplinary

network of researchers, policy makers and leaders in business, industry and education who

share a passion for improved learning and performance. It’s a fine word, but falls short in

describing relationships that are much more than a handshake or signature on a contract.

They are alliances founded on trust, respect and a shared vision.

We value all these relationships. But as a former teacher and principal, I confess a special

connection with educators. Whether we are partnering to develop curricula, providing

professional development or testing new approaches to teaching and assessment, LSI could

achieve nothing without their support. Working shoulder to shoulder with educators, our

researchers gain unique insights into what works, what doesn’t and why. This closeness not

only improves the quality of our research, but also expedites its impact. As a rule, it takes a

decade for research findings to trickle down to the actual practice of professionals. Thanks to

the strong relationships we have with our partners, we have, in many cases, all but eliminated

that gap.

These people are the real numbers we celebrate in this annual report. While we take pride in

our grant and research productivity, our true strength lies in our myriad partners, our ability to

assemble them into effective teams and an environment that encourages them to do their best.

In gratitude to our partners,

Laura Lang

Director

Learning Systems Institute

Laura LangDirector, Learning Systems Institute

A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 1 0 - 2 0 1 1 - P A R T N E R I N G f O R P R O G R E S S 3

MFAS: Helping Teachers Differentiate K-3 Math Instruction

Nick had 5 apple slices. Addie gave him some more. Now Nick has 10 apple slices. How many apple slices did Addie give him?

Simple as it might seem, that’s a pedagogically loaded question – at least for kindergartners. On a year-end test, it can tell a teacher one thing: whether or not a child knows the answer. If the question is asked in a different context, however, the teacher can learn much more about a child’s math knowledge — and how to advance it.

That’s the difference between “summative” assessments — high-stakes, annual tests that determine whether a student learned the material — and “formative” assessments, which teachers can use every day to mold their teaching as students’ learning evolves. An increasing body of research suggests that the students of teachers who use formative assessments perform significantly better than other students. The rub: Formative assessments can be challenging to implement.

With that in mind, LSI’s Florida Center for Research in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (FCR-STEM) researched, designed, built and tested the Mathematics Formative Assessment System (MFAS). Released in the spring of 2011, the system provides teachers of kindergarten through third grade with tools and strategies that not only identify what math problems students can do, but also reveal the thinking behind those answers and suggest ways teachers can adapt instruction accordingly.

The system, made possible through LSI’s partnerships with several Florida school districts, comes at a time when more than a fifth of the state’s third-graders perform below grade level in math on state achievement tests. Helping these children while they are still young is critical: Early math skills are a strong predictor of later academic success. Teachers need effective strategies to help those struggling students.

The MFAS is made up of 229 sets of math tasks (at least three for each of the K-3 math benchmarks in the state standards) that students can perform to demonstrate their growing knowledge.

Created by a team that included classroom teachers as well as university experts from Florida State’s College of Education and Department of Mathematics, the system also features rubrics that help teachers interpret a student’s work and suggest how to best adapt instruction. In addition, the MFAS includes cost-effective support and training for teachers and principals through an online professional development system. This training and all MFAS tasks are available free to educators through the CPALMS website (www.floridastandards.org), an online, standards-based resource system built by FCR-STEM.

The impact of this powerful tool will soon expand nationwide. FCR-STEM has been funded to align the MFAS with the Common Core State Standards, which in most states define the knowledge and skills students should learn in school. For this new project, FCR-STEM also will design professional development and Web-based tools to help teachers work together to improve teaching and learning at their schools. Through a series of pilot-tests, researchers will study how teachers implement the MFAS in the classroom, its impact on student learning, and how the system can be refined.

So, to return to our question: How many apple slices did Addie give Nick? In formative assessment, the “right” answer is almost beside the point: The higher goal is to gather and use information about student thinking to illumine a path to better teaching and learning.

ReSeARcH TeAM: Laura Lang (PI)

Grant aMount: $989,000

FunDInG aGEnCy: Florida Department of Education

GRANT peRIoD: 2009-2010


Say you’re reading a story and come across this sentence: “This morning, I bought The New York Times.” You may well envision a fellow walking down the street, stopping at a newsstand and plunking down a couple of quarters for the paper.

It’s a simple enough sentence. Except that it isn’t. Because that fellow may be buying not just the day’s edition, but the entire media company. If you lack the background knowledge to know the sentence might have an alternate meaning, you may read it, but utterly fail to comprehend it. In our schools, many children face similar problems. Just because they decode words on a page doesn’t mean they “get it.” They may lack the vocabulary or background knowledge about a topic to connect the invisible dots in the text or face other hurdles. Students who fail to grasp a text’s meaning — even as they succeed, technically, in reading it — may falter across the board academically.

Getting children over that bridge from reading to understanding is the goal of a large-scale effort underway at the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) at LSI. FCRR has launched a dozen in-depth studies to develop tools, curricula and strategies to meet that goal, all part of a nationwide, $100-million “Reading for Understanding” initiative involving some 130 researchers.

an interdisciplinary partnership at FCrr focuses on the pre-K to fifth grade portion of this pedagogical problem. Led by Christopher Lonigan and Carol Connor, professor and associate professor respectively, in Florida State’s Department of Psychology, the team is conducting research in higher-poverty schools across North Florida and developing instructional activities and professional development to make it easier for teachers to put study findings into practice.

The project’s basic research studies, designed to identify skills and abilities that influence reading for understanding, will help researchers develop interventions in subsequent years. One study,

Interdisciplinary Team Bridges Gap from Reading to Understanding


for example, assesses children on everything from basic attention and working memory to decoding and language comprehension. Another uses eye-tracking computers to study how children examine words as they read.

The intervention studies test a variety of approaches for improving comprehension, including a curriculum for students who speak non-standard English at home; a curriculum to improve comprehension of social studies books; strategies for increasing understanding of story structures; and instructional units that focus on syntax and language skills.

“Because children bring a wide range of strengths and weaknesses to the classroom, instruction tends to be more effective if it takes these individual differences into account,” says Connor. “If we create a suite of interventions, teachers will be able to provide targeted reading comprehension instruction to the students who can most benefit.”

ReSeARcH TeAM: Carol Connor and Christopher Lonigan (PIs); Stephanie Al Otaiba, Kenn Apel, Michael Kaschak, Young-Suk Kim, Beth Phillips, Ralph Radach, Christopher Schatschneider, Shurita Thomas-Tate and Richard Wagner

GRANT AMoUNT: $20,000,000

FUNDING AGeNcy: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences



In theory, field trips are a great idea: Students escape the confines of their classroom to learn in a new, exciting environment. As many educators will tell you, however, few of these excursions live up to their pedagogical potential.

“They become more of an obstacle course,” says Sherry Southerland, an associate professor at Florida State’s College of Education. “How many things can kids see in a short period of time?”

Efforts underway at LSI aim to fix that problem: The Habitat Tracker project harnesses online and mobile technologies to improve field trips for fourth- and fifth-graders.

teaming up with the tallahassee Museum, a 52-acre complex featuring dozens of animals in a natural setting, researchers are designing lessons on scientific inquiry centered around visits to see bobcats, otters and other museum animals. Before the field trip, students learn about the animals using online resources and formulate scientific questions through class discussions. After the field trip, students analyze data they collected and present their findings.

In between, while on the field trip, students observe animals and record what they see. They are learning about wildlife, but that’s beside the point. The project’s main objective is more complex: to teach kids about the nature of science, a relatively new addition to Florida’s science teaching standards.

“Our goal in developing this project is to get students involved in thinking like scientists – how they go about asking and answering questions, how they go about collecting the data needed to answer the questions,” says Paul Marty, an associate

professor at Florida State’s College of Communication and Information and the project’s principal investigator. “We don’t think these kids are going to learn anything about these animals at the Tallahassee Museum that they couldn’t read in a book. But they’re going to learn a lot about the process of learning about them.”

To meet this challenge, Marty and his team turned to iPads. Students on the field trip use the device, loaded with a special app developed by the researchers, to record their observations of the animals, their habitat and weather conditions. This information is uploaded into a database that the young scientists use as they conduct research and develop questions about the animals.

Marty’s team is testing and refining the website and app. So far, the results have been promising.

“I think this brings science to life more than what we’re able to do in the classroom,” says Rebecca Taylor, a fourth-grade teacher at Florida State University Schools, one of several north Florida schools partnering with LSI to test Habitat tracker. “I have never been on a field trip where the students were actually this engaged in observations.”

Like a pack of paparazzi, project researchers videotape, shoot photos and scribble notes during their beta tests as students enter observations into the iPads. Southerland, a co-principal investigator for the project, is encouraged by what she sees. “Students are being much more careful and taking much more time making observations of the organisms,” she says, “so it’s less an athletic event and more an educational event.”

ReSeARcH TeAM: Paul Marty (PI); Ian Douglas, Vic Sampson and Sherry Southerland

GRANT AMoUNT: $1.2 million

FUNDING AGeNcy: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences


exploiting Technology to Teach the Nature of Science


In our rapidly changing world, it is more critical than ever for staff in schools, businesses and other workplaces to keep pace with evolving needs, knowledge and standards. That’s one reason professional development, or PD, is such big business, particularly for teachers. In this crowded field, LSI is increasingly recognized as a developer of top-quality, research-driven PD that delivers meaningful, measurable results.

Professional development is a key component of most LSI projects, assuming formats and addressing subjects that run the gamut. We conduct hands-on sessions that bring trainers and trainees face to face, and create online tools that empower tens of thousands of workers to tailor PD to their needs and schedules. Sometimes subject matter experts lead training sessions, while for other programs LSI creates formal and informal communities of peers who engage in professional learning in a more job-embedded, collaborative fashion.

Our PD for educators focuses on two key areas: teaching pedagogical content knowledge and providing tools to help teachers differentiate instruction based on gaps in students’ understanding of important concepts. Although the content may vary, several key components strengthen our approach in all these efforts. First, we partner with faculty at Florida State’s College of Arts and Sciences to teach science, math and other content knowledge to participants. Second, we recognize the pivotal role school principals and district leaders play in supporting teaching and learning, and include them in our PD designs. Third, we favor yearlong programs over short-term, one-shot

training sessions, so educators can accumulate knowledge and practice over time. Finally, we incorporate job-embedded elements into the PD to encourage educators to implement what they have learned in their classrooms.

This comprehensive approach has produced strong outcomes. We know this not because our PD participants tell us so (although they do), but because we conduct randomized controlled trials that compare students of teachers who took part in our PD with students of teachers who did not. This rigorous research, at the cutting edge of the PD field, provides evidence of success as well as feedback for refining the elements of our programs.

Clearly, this intensive approach to PD requires the kind of commitment, cooperation and communication found only in strong partnerships. At LSI, we have been fortunate to work with dedicated educators like Anna-Marie Cote, deputy superintendent of Seminole County Public Schools. Cote’s staff has participated in several LSI programs that, she says, have been “the best professional development of their careers.” According to 2011 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test results, her district’s fifth-graders tied for first place in science in Central Florida, a first-ever achievement Cote credits in part to LSI.

“The structure of the LSI training reflects and models best practices in teaching and learning,” says Cote. “Time and again our participants said that if they had learned math and science in this manner, they would have been better students, teachers and administrators.”

Research-Based Training with Real-World Results

LSI pRoFeSSIoNAL DeveLopMeNT HIGHLIGHTS FoR Fy 2010-2011

n The Mathematics Formative Assessment System, a collection of tools and resources for teachers of kindergarten through third grade, was released. Designed, built and pilot-tested by LSI in partnership with teachers from across the state and Okaloosa County Schools for the Florida Department of Education, the system features several online professional development modules.

n PortStar, a new LSI spinoff, began offering a performance-based system developed at LSI for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The system trains seaport staff to prevent, detect and respond to terrorism threats.

n To date, educators have submitted more than 2,300 resources to CPALMS (www.floridastandards.org), an online standards-based resource system built by LSI for the Florida Department of Education. LSI experts provide feedback for improving these resources and aligning them with state standards, a free PD service that also helps expand CPALMS’ trove of online resources.

n LSI taught hundreds of Florida science and math teachers and their principals about new teaching standards, focusing on deep content knowledge and effective instructional strategies.

n Administered by LSI, the Florida Inclusion Network reached more than 10,000 teachers and other personnel at state schools through presentations, workshops and other means, helping them support, teach and assess students with disabilities.

n LSI created an online training module on research methods for university lecturers across Indonesia.

n Operated by LSI’s Florida Center for Reading Research, the Center on Instruction-Literacy, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, developed and disseminated a dozen webinars on education and literacy to educators nationwide.


Seen from a satellite floating high above Asia, the 17,000 islands that make up Indonesia are like pieces of a puzzle strewn across the Indian Ocean. Indeed, a puzzle is a fitting metaphor for education reform in this sprawling nation of 238 million.

For many years, the government took a centralized approach to this puzzle. But for a country of multiple ethnicities, languages and religions, a one-size-fits-all solution was destined to founder. Enter the U.S. Agency for International Development, which was charged in 2005 by the Indonesian and U.S. governments with fixing this problem through the Decentralized Basic Education Program. The $60-million effort aims to improve basic education in Indonesia through a multi-prong approach involving dozens of organizations, including LSI, each responsible for different parts of the puzzle.

For the past six years, LSI’s Center for International Studies in Educational Research and Development (CISERD) has worked across Indonesia to improve the training of schoolteachers by focusing first on training the university lecturers who instruct those teachers. In a traditional educational culture reliant on lectures, LSI saw the need to teach the lecturers how to conduct quality, basic educational research, a skill they could, in turn, show primary and secondary teachers how to use in their classrooms. LSI led workshops modeling this “action research” approach: identify a problem, gather data to understand it, develop and implement responses, evaluate results and revise as

necessary. To reach a wider audience, researchers packaged these materials into an online training module, and also helped the Indonesia Open University transition from print-based to web-based delivery for all its distance education content.

“This has been an empowering process for everyone involved,” says CISERD center director Jeffrey Milligan, a professor at Florida State’s College of Education and the project’s principal investigator. “It’s been a matter of pushing decisions for policy out of Jakarta and closer to the people they’re intended to impact.”

This project has yielded benefits well beyond the deliverables. the bridges built between LSI and Indonesian faculty, administrators and staff have led to student exchanges and cooperative agreements, paving the way for future teamwork as the country continues the long process of decentralizing education. Says Milligan, “This is really just the beginning.”

ReSeARcH TeAM: Jeffrey Milligan (PI) and Flavia Ramos-Mattoussi

GRANT AMoUNT: $1,841,847

FUNDING AGeNcy: Educational Development Center


Indonesia

1

2

3 45

67

8

9

Malang

Salatiga

Medan

Serang

JakartaSemarang

Makassar

Jayapura

Banda Aceh

LSI sites in Indonesia

1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.

Australia

piece by piece, partners put Reform plan into Action


Some of the nation’s leading researchers in education and human performance work at LSI, heading multimillion-dollar, high-impact research projects that improve work and lives. But an important part of their jobs, and of LSI’s job as an organization, is to pave the way for the next generation of preeminent researchers. In fact, every year LSI trains hundreds of students — from undergraduates to post-docs — in a wide variety of positions that engage them in real-world research.

“In a few years, these young scholars will be our partners,” says LSI Director Laura Lang, who every year mentors a group of promising students. “We want top-notch researchers out there practicing the kind of rigorous research that points the way to better teaching, learning and performance.” Maintaining a high ratio of graduate students to tenure track and tenured faculty — more than 7-to-1 for the past six years — is an important organizational goal.

Mark LaVenia, who has spent five years in the intensive Pre-doctoral Interdisciplinary Research Training (PIRT) program at LSI, is well on his way to joining the ranks of the nation’s top researchers in his field. Pursuing a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Florida State’s College of Education, LaVenia has logged countless hours in LSI’s research trenches. He doesn’t just assist on projects, but assumes ownership of much of the work. LaVenia was involved in LSI’s Leadership for Mathematics and Science Instruction project from the ground up: He conducted literature reviews, designed professional development for educators, created a survey to evaluate its effectiveness and analyzed the results.

“It wasn’t some sample of what you might do when you graduate,” says LaVenia. “We were doing what we hope to do when we graduate — while still in school.”

Anabelle Reta Sanchez, another PIRT fellow, has conducted, written and presented original research at professional conferences. In the collaborative, multi-disciplinary atmosphere of LSI, she has matured as a researcher and worked alongside scholars after whom, she says, she will model her own career. She speaks fervently about her research on immigrant and migrant students, evincing the type of enthusiasm she has found everywhere at LSI.

“I haven’t met anyone at LSI who isn’t super dedicated in whatever field they’re in. That dedication comes from a true passion,” says Reta Sanchez. “It’s a very nurturing environment for people who have genuine ideas.”

Training Tomorrow’s Researchers


In the fall of 2010, in an annual tradition played out at high schools across the country, students at George Jenkins High School in Lakeland, Florida, voted for a homecoming king. Unlike most schools, however, GJHS crowned a student who happened to have an intellectual disability — a disability that hampered neither his school spirit nor his ability to take part in some of the school’s regular classes.

In the past decade, teachers, students and school administrators across Florida have included more and more students like Zachary Briggs in regular classes. a long-time partnership between two projects administered through LSI has played an important role in that positive trend.

For the past decade, the Florida Inclusion Network (FIN) and the Accommodations and Modifications for Students with Disabilities project have worked on two facets of the same educational problem: How to better serve students with disabilities and integrate them into regular classrooms.

The accommodations project helps teachers comply with sometimes confusing state standards and requirements concerning students with disabilities by developing online courses and other materials to guide the way. Then FIN deploys those resources and materials they develop to provide training, consultation and information on inclusion to educators, parents and the community.

Since 1997, LSI has administered some $18.5 million for these projects,

contributing to significant gains for students. In 2000, for example, only 48 percent of Floridians with disabilities ages 6 to 21 received the majority of their education in regular classes. By 2010, that figure had climbed to 67 percent.

“There was going to be an increase regardless,” says longtime FIN Director Cheryl Liles, “but we like to think we had something to do with that.”

Marty Beech, who has managed the accommodations project since its beginning at LSI, has devoted many years to aligning the jumble of rules and regulations and packaging them into clear practices. Teachers tell her the materials “make sense” — to Beech, the highest of compliments.

“So much of what we get in education is a hodgepodge,” says Beech. “Our materials fit nicely together and people can use the same language to talk about things.”

Still, there’s a long road ahead. FIN facilitator Sallie Payne walks it every day, leading professional development sessions that illustrate how students bring differing experiences, prior knowledge and readiness levels to the classroom.

“See?” cries a fist-pumping Payne after a successful demonstration of how music or other noise can help some students while hindering others. “I love it — we are so different! It’s awesome!”

ReSeARcH TeAM: Laura Lang (PI); Marty Beech and Cheryl Liles

GRANT AMoUNT: $725,000 (Accommodations and Modifications); $650,145 (FIN)*

FUNDING AGeNcy: Florida Department of Education


* FY 2010-2011 amounts only

projects Join Forces to Knock Down Barriers to Learning


Leadership at LSIEvery year more than 150 Florida State Professors and researchers collaborate on LSI projects, including the following lead research faculty:

Stephanie al-otaibaResearch Faculty, Florida Center for Reading ResearchAssociate Professor, School of Teacher Education, College of Education

Carol ConnorResearch Faculty, Florida Center for Reading ResearchAssociate Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences

aubteen DarabiAssociate Program Director, LSIAssociate Professor, Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, College of Education

Ian DouglasAssociate Program Director, LSIAssociate Professor, College of Communication and Information

David EcclesCenter Director, Human Performance Research Center Associate Professor, Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, College of Education

nancy EverhartCenter Director, Partnerships Advancing Library Media (PALM) CenterAssociate Professor, School of Library and Information Studies, College of Communication and Information

Barbara FoormanCenter Director, Florida Center for Reading ResearchFrancis Eppes Professor of Education, College Education

tristan JohnsonResearch Faculty, LSIAssistant Professor, Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, College of Education

young-Suk KimResearch Faculty, Florida Center for Reading ResearchAssistant Professor, School of Teacher Education, College of Education

Laura LangDirector, LSIAssociate Professor, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, College of Education

Christopher LoniganAssociate Center Director, Florida Center for Reading ResearchProfessor, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences

Jeffrey MilliganCenter Director, Center for International Studies in Educational Research and DevelopmentProfessor, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, College of Education

Beth PhillipsResearch Faculty, Florida Center for Reading ResearchAssistant Professor, Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, College of Education

Flavia ramos-MattoussiAssociate Center Director, Center for International Studies in Educational Research and Development

rabieh razzoukAssociate Director, LSI

Christopher SchatschneiderAssociate Center Director, Florida Center for Reading ResearchAssociate Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences

robert SchoenAssociate Center Director, Florida Center for Research in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

richard WagnerAssociate Center Director, Florida Center for Reading ResearchProfessor, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences

Jeanne WanzekResearch Faculty, Florida Center for Reading ResearchAssistant Professor, School of Teacher Education, College of Education

L E A R N I N G S Y S T E M S I N S T I T U T E12 7

LSI contracts and Grants The following LSI projects were awarded during FY 2010-2011.

Accommodations & Modifications for Students with Disabilities Funding agency: Florida Department of EducationGrant amount: $725,000 Principal Investigator: Laura LangThis project is developing training, software, and print material to support the education of students with disabilities in Florida’s public schools.

Argument-Driven Inquiry in the Middle and High School Laboratory: The Development and Refinement of a New Instructional ModelFunding agency: US Department of Education, Institute of Education SciencesGrant amount: $1,062,214Principal Investigator: Victor SampsonThis project is developing and refining a new instructional model, Argument-Driven Inquiry, that will enable more students to develop science proficiency by engaging them in more authentic and educative laboratory experiences.

Assessing Reading for Understanding: A Theory-Based, Developmental Approach Funding agency: Educational Testing ServiceGrant amount: $4,447,990 Principal Investigator: Barbara FoormanResearchers are isolating the best predictors of reading comprehension in existing assessments, then using them to build new interactive reading assessments that challenge students to think about what they read.

BIoScopeS: Biology Institute and online Support: collaborative opportunities to promote excellence in ScienceFunding agency: Florida Department of EducationGrant amount: $16,215,891 Principal Investigator: Joseph TravisThis professional development program for science teachers in 19 north Florida school districts aims to improve teachers’ science content knowledge and pedagogy and create school-based professional learning communities focused on student learning.

conceptual prototype for Assessing cognitive ReadinessFunding agency: JXT Applications Inc.Grant amount: $25,000 Principal Investigator: Tristan JohnsonThis project is developing a conceptual prototype for assessing the cognitive readiness of teams trained to tackle specific missions.

Florida Inclusion Network (2010-2011) Funding agency: Florida Department of EducationGrant amount: $651,145 Principal Investigator: Laura LangThe Florida Inclusion Network (FIN) supports the inclusion of all students by providing learning opportunities, consultation, information and support to educators, parents and community members.

Florida State University Research and Development center for pre-K to 5th Grade Student comprehension (Reading for Understanding Initiative) Funding agency: US Department of Education, Institute of Education SciencesGrant amount: $20,000,000 Principal Investigator: Christopher LoniganThis center will identify the key language, cognitive and regulatory components necessary for strong comprehension of spoken and printed language; develop, refine and evaluate instructional activities that teachers can effectively use to increase the language and reading comprehension skills of children in pre-K to 5th grade; and develop and evaluate an online system that will support teachers’ use of these instructional activities.

Florida Teacher Quality Grants program (cycle 3) Funding agency: Florida Department of EducationGrant amount: $187,450 Principal Investigator: Barbara FoormanThis professional development project seeks to increase teachers’ knowledge of discipline-specific content and literacy practices to enable all students to access content of the Next Generation Sunshine State Literacy Standards.

Habitat Tracker: Learning about Scientific Inquiry through Digital Journaling in Wildlife centersFunding agency: US Department of Education, Institute of Education SciencesGrant amount: $1,156,497 Principal Investigator: Paul MartyThis research project is developing and testing digital journaling as an approach to teaching scientific inquiry to small groups of students while they walk a trail at a wildlife center.


History Repeats Itself: Women in the History of Mathematics for Women Learning Mathematics Funding agency: Tensor Foundation / Mathematical Association of AmericaGrant amount: $5,135 Principal Investigator: Kathy ClarkThis project brought together two dozen young women ages 12 to 20 to read, analyze and discuss original works of four women famous for their contributions to mathematics.

icpALMS: A portal for Standards-Based Instruction Funding agency: National Science FoundationGrant amount: $2,167,500 Principal Investigator: Laura LangiCPALMS is a widget-based portal into content, services, professional development, and research to support standards-driven instructional planning with K-12 National Science Digital Library resources aligned with current state curriculum standards and the Common Core State Standards.

Innovative Methods for Silent Reading Fluency Funding agency: Taylor AssociatesGrant amount: $60,000 Principal Investigator: Ralph RadachThis project provides consultation on the continued development of the Reading Plus web-based silent reading intervention by studying data gathered through eye-movement recording systems to identify visual, perceptual and cognitive functions of silent reading. Integrating STeM: Science, Mathematics and computingFunding agency: Helios Education FoundationGrant amount: $495,000 Principal Investigator: Laura LangThis project is preparing teachers to help middle school students acquire the math, science and computing skills needed to successfully pursue STEM fields in the future.

Jacksonville’s Next Generation Initiative (2011)Funding agency: University of North FloridaGrant amount: $50,000 Principal Investigator: Carolyn HerringtonThis project supports local efforts to improve children’s academic achievement through a strategic, collaborative focus on two areas: strengthening the links among schools, families, and communities and improving the quality and availability of outside-the-classroom learning experiences.

Mathematics and Science partnerships: Florida partnership to Rejuvenate & optimize Mathematics and Science education pRoMiSe online Training ModulesFunding agency: Florida Department of EducationGrant amount: $1,200,000 Principal Investigator: Laura LangThis project is developing about 50 online professional development modules for K-12 teachers based on workshops developed by Florida PROMiSE, a Math & Science partnership of three state universities, four large school districts and three rural educational consortia funded in 2008-2010.

progress Monitoring and Reporting Network (pMRN) Helpdesk and the Florida Assessments for Instruction in Reading (FAIR) Funding agency: Florida Department of EducationGrant amount: $456,411 Principal Investigator: Barbara FoormanThis project operates the help desk for the PMRN and the FAIR, providing technical assistance to state, district and school-based users via phone and e-mail.

promoting the School Readiness Skills of Spanish-Speaking english Learners (2010-2011)Funding agency: National Institute of Child Health and Human DevelopmentGrant amount: $264,045 Principal Investigator: Christopher LoniganThis study is evaluating the benefits of an academically-focused preschool curriculum on the school readiness skills and subsequent academic achievement of children who are Spanish-speaking English language learners.

Understanding Malleable cognitive processes and Integrated comprehension Interventions for Grades 7-12 Funding agency: US Department of Education, Institute of Education SciencesGrant amount: $1,534,011 Principal Investigator: Jeanne WanzekA collaboration of LSI and four universities in Texas, this project is developing and evaluating integrated interventions for improving middle and high-school struggling readers’ vocabulary, content knowledge and ability to read for understanding from narrative and informational text.


Funding Sources, Active Grants, Fy 2010-2011In FY 2010-2011, LSI worked on projects totaling $111,245,699 in funding. The chart below depicts the sources of that funding.

Total Awards value of Active Grants over Time

34%

63%

2% 1%

$120,000,000

$100,000,000

$80,000,000

$60,000,000

$40,000,000

$20,000,000

$0

FY04-05

FY03-04

FY05-06

FY06-07

FY07-08

FY08-09

FY09-10

FY10-11

$41,948,946$48,074,431

$62,601,773

$73,934,133

$81,854,885$86,546,617

$78,496,560

$111,245,699

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

FY04-05

FY03-04

FY02-03

FY01-02

FY00-01

FY05-06

FY06-07

FY07-08

FY08-09

FY09-10

FY10-11

Goal ROI

34%

63%

2% 1%

$120,000,000

$100,000,000

$80,000,000

$60,000,000

$40,000,000

$20,000,000

$0

FY04-05

FY03-04

FY05-06

FY06-07

FY07-08

FY08-09

FY09-10

FY10-11

$41,948,946$48,074,431

$62,601,773

$73,934,133

$81,854,885$86,546,617

$78,496,560

$111,245,699

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

FY04-05

FY03-04

FY02-03

FY01-02

FY00-01

FY05-06

FY06-07

FY07-08

FY08-09

FY09-10

FY10-11

Goal ROI


Return on InvestmentOne of LSI’s performance goals is to bring in $5 of external funding for every $1 in state funding received. LSI has exceeded this goal

every year since FY 2001-2002, and achieved its best return on investment to date in FY 2010-2011.

34%

63%

2% 1%

$120,000,000

$100,000,000

$80,000,000

$60,000,000

$40,000,000

$20,000,000

$0

FY04-05

FY03-04

FY05-06

FY06-07

FY07-08

FY08-09

FY09-10

FY10-11

$41,948,946$48,074,431

$62,601,773

$73,934,133

$81,854,885$86,546,617

$78,496,560

$111,245,699

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

FY04-05

FY03-04

FY02-03

FY01-02

FY00-01

FY05-06

FY06-07

FY07-08

FY08-09

FY09-10

FY10-11

Goal ROI

LSI Is organized Into Six centers: 1. Florida Center for Reading Research

2. Florida Center for Research in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

3. Center on Leadership and Learning

4. Human Performance Research Center

5. Center for International Studies in Educational Research and Development

6. Partnerships Advancing Library Media

Learning Systems InstituteFlorida State University

C4600 University CenterTallahassee, FL 32306

www.lsi.fsu.eduTel: 850.644.2570

lsi_annualreport_2011

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