Linking Science, Inquiry, and Language Literacy (L-SILL)
Preliminary Impact Findings:

Evidence is beginning to emerge showing that high-quality teacher professional development in Linking Science, Inquiry, and Language Literacy plays a key role in improving student achievement in both science and language literacy. Described below are some of the preliminary findings from the L-SILL project in Maine:

What impact has the L-SILL project had to date?
The L-SILL Cohort 1 and 2 schools are beginning to report results for this program. After just two years data is indicating that:

• Science is part of the core curriculum, as reported by building principals.
  
  
• Instructional time for science has increased (1/3 of survey responses report an increase in the instructional time for science) in many of the schools from Cohort 1.
  
  
• Increased confidence in teaching science, reported by participating teachers.
  
  
• Increased use of expository writing in science class (survey responses, artifacts, and interviews).
  
  
• Increased use of nonfiction text in science class (self-reporting by administrators and teachers- survey).
  
  
• Involvement in L-SILL professional development various among schools. The Cohort 2 schools (2006-2008) are showing greater participation in their first year than the Cohort 1 schools (2005-2007) (Table 1). Greater involvement in L-SILL program by districts and teachers preliminarily appears to be linked to student achievement gains.

• Trends in the amount of improvement in student performance on the MEA are very positive for science, literacy and mathematics as compared with the state scores for 4 of the 6 Cohort 1 schools where teachers have been in the program for two years. The Cohort 2 schools 2nd year of data will be collected in the spring of 2008 so no useful achievement data is available. (see Graphs 1-4 of percent of change in the content areas by performance levels.)