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MSP LNC 2009

2009 MSP Learning Network Conference: Invitation from NSF

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Dear Colleagues:

Please feel free to share this letter related to the 2009 MSP Learning Network Conference with members of the MSP community. The letter highlights Registration for the Conference and the Call for Abstracts.

The 2009 MSP Learning Network Conference will be held on January 26th and 27th at the Renaissance Washington Hotel, 999 Ninth Street NW, Washington, D.C. This year's theme is Teacher Education and the 2009 Learning Network Conference title is Research Findings in Teacher Education: New Approaches --> Transformative Possibilities? (Read note about Transformative Research) The meeting will convene representatives from all Partnerships, as well as from Research, Evaluation and Technical Assistance (RETA) projects.

Registration: Registration to attend the 2009 Learning Network Conference will be active during the week of November 10th at http://mspnet.orgmsp_conf_2009_reg. The main meeting will begin on the morning of Monday, January 26th, at 8:30 AM, and will conclude by 3:00 PM on Tuesday, January 27th. Up to five members from each Comprehensive, Institute, Phase II and Targeted Partnership project, four members from each MSP-Start, and two members from each RETA project are invited to attend. Projects are responsible for travel and lodging expenses for each attendee; these are acceptable expenses from your NSF funds. We ask that each four- or five-member team include at least the PI, a representative from a K-12 partner district/school, a STEM faculty member, and an individual familiar with some portion of the project's evaluation and/or research.
Be sure to read the Frequently Asked Questions about conference registration.

New MSP Awardees: All new awardees are expected to be represented by project leadership during a pre-conference on Sunday, January 25th, lasting from 2:30 PM to 5:30 PM. Pre-conference topics will include discussions on financial management, annual reporting (both through FastLane and MSP's Management Information System), MSPnet, and more.

Call for Abstracts: MSP projects (pre-2008 awardees) are invited to present key findings supported by credible data on focused aspects of their work during one of the Conference breakout sessions. Feedback from last year's Conference indicated that attendees most appreciated presentations rich in evaluation/research design details and in outcome data supporting results, rather than talks solely based on project design and implementation.

For this year's Learning Network Conference, the Planning Committee requests that groups interested in presenting at the meeting submit a 3-4 page abstract indicating how the proposed presentation will address the following:
  • Context of the work to be presented,
  • Claim(s) or hypothesis(es) examined in the work,
  • Evaluation and/or research design, data collection and analysis,
  • Evidence-based results or knowledge claim, and
  • Conclusions and implications.
Abstracts must be related to one of the conference strands (Pre-Service, In-service, or Recruitment, Induction & Retention). While not limited to the following, topics for presentations that PIs have noted to be of high interest include:

Pre-Service
  • All aspects of teacher preparation
  • Changes in undergraduate courses to encourage students into teaching
In-Service
  • Professional development efforts to improve content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and/or pedagogy
  • Various aspects of developing and using teacher leaders
  • Involvement of teachers in professional learning communities
Recruitment, Induction & Retention
  • Career paths for science and mathematics teachers
  • Professional activities which encourage teachers to stay in and continue to contribute to the profession
MSP projects are encouraged to submit more than one abstract, discussing and providing evidence for what has been successful and what has not. As the work of the MSPs is ongoing, the research does not have to be fully completed for it to be proposed as a presentation. Completed abstracts must be submitted by Tuesday, December 9th to abstracts@mspnet.org using the Conference Abstract Submission Form. Submitted abstracts will be reviewed by the Planning Committee whose members will formally invite presentations by January 2nd. Please be sure that the abstract includes the contact information for someone who can be reached during the December 24th through January 2nd period. Presentations will be invited either for a full 90 minute breakout session or as part of a joint breakout session with another group that has submitted an abstract on the same topic. Invited presentations will also participate in a Virtual Poster Hall beginning during the Learning Network Conference and through mid-February.

Please note that MSP's Knowledge Management & Dissemination (KMD) project would like to collect abstracts as a means of learning what MSP projects anticipate presenting at the Learning Network Conference. If you are willing to immediately share your abstract with the KMD team, please check the appropriate box on the Abstract Submission Form.

We sincerely hope that Partnerships will submit an abstract or multiple abstracts to share their powerful work. In addition to formal presentations at the Learning Network Conference in January, you can offer to lead a Special Interest Group (that does not fit easily in the Conference theme) through the Registration form. We will contact you if there is interest on the same topic from others.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

Sincerely,

The MSP Program Staff at NSF and
The 2009 Learning Network Conference Planning Committee