A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

What is the FiW Consortium?

This section describes the First in the World Consortium. It answers questions such as:

• How and why was the Consortium launched?

• How many students are in the Consortium?

• What are its goals?

• How does it hope to achieve these goals?

It begins with a description of the Consortium's history and origins, and then describes its goal and objectives, as well as the Consortium's plan of action for achieving these objectives.

History and Description

The FiW Consortium is currently made up of 17 school districts located in the north suburbs of Chicago and the Illinois Math and Science Academy. Together, they are pursuing a common goal of becoming first in the world in math and science achievement.

The Consortium grew out of a study group of superintendents which was formed to fulfill an administrative re-certification requirement. Members of this study group met regularly over the course of several months. Discussions at these meetings centered on contemporary education reform issues facing the administrators in their various districts.

The FiW Consortium was launched at the final meeting of the superintendents' group, during which the National Education Goals were discussed.

Determined to take the national goals seriously, the superintendents decided to form a consortium of districts committed to providing a world class education for their students. The group agreed to first focus collectively on obtaining Goal 5, to be first in the world in math and science by the year 2000.

Reflecting their goal, the group called themselves the First in the World Consortium, a title with which they felt uncomfortable, but which accurately captured their goals and aspirations. In March 1995, the Consortium entered into partnership with the U.S. Department of Education and the North Central Regional Education Laboratory in its efforts to obtain this goal.

As of winter 1999, the Consortium included 13 elementary districts (grades K–8), 3 high school districts (grades 9–12), the North Suburban Special Education District (which serves most of the districts' special education students), and the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA).² IMSA is a publicly funded educational laboratory and three-year residential secondary program for Illinois students gifted in math and science. While IMSA is a state agency, the term "districts" is used throughout the report as a convenience to the reader.

Together, these districts contain 49 elementary or middle schools, 6 high schools, and one special education school. During the 1996-97 school year, total student enrollment in these schools was approximately 36,000 students. Nearly four out of five students (78 percent) within the Consortium were white, non-Hispanic. Fourteen percent of the students were Asian/Pacific Islanders, while seven percent were Hispanic and two percent were black, non-Hispanic.

The Consortium contains relatively high wealth districts, and thus may have different characteristics from many individual U.S. districts and the U.S. as a whole. In the 1995-96 school year, average per-pupil expenditures across the Consortium was approximately $8,958³ compared to $5,774 in the U.S.⁴

Yet, not all of the Consortium's students come from high-income families. In 1996-97, seven percent of the Consortium's students were classified as coming from low-income families.⁵ Six percent of Consortium students had limited-English proficiency (LEP).

Approximately 2,600 classroom and special education teachers teach within the Consortium.⁶ In general, FiW teachers tend to have higher education levels than their U.S. counterparts: Sixty-three percent of FiW teachers have earned at least a master's degree versus 56 percent of U.S. teachers.⁷ The average number of years of teaching experience for FiW teachers is 14 years.⁸

Perhaps reflecting the education and experience levels of FiW teachers, average teacher salaries in Consortium districts are relatively high. In 1995-96, the average salary for FiW elementary school teachers was $47,339. The average salary for FiW high school teachers was $65,263.⁹

U.S. teacher salaries for the same time period are lower. The average salary in the U.S. during the 1995-96 school year was $39,976 for elementary school teachers and $38,423 for secondary school teachers.¹⁰ See appendix A for a current list of FiW districts and more information on FiW district characteristics.

Goals and Objectives

As noted earlier, the FiW Consortium decided to focus first on obtaining Goal 5 of the National Education Goals: to become first in the world in math and science. The Consortium's leadership set three objectives to help them obtain this distinction. They were:

• Benchmark Consortium schools' performance against an international measure of student achievement;

• Create a forum to clarify world-class standards for business leaders, policymakers, educators, and community members; and

• Establish networks of learning communities that actively involve educators, parents, and community leaders.

These objectives were chosen to provide Consortium leaders and educators with a baseline against which to measure their progress, as well as a better understanding and knowledge of the instructional, curricular, and assessment practices needed to obtain world-class achievement.

Recognizing that obtaining this ambitious goal would involve input, advice, and support from all members of the Consortium's community, they also sought to actively involve educators, parents, and community leaders.

Plan of Action

To obtain the consortium's goal and objectives, the FiW leadership developed and embarked upon a three- step plan of action. These steps were:

(1) developing partnerships at the national, regional, and local levels;

(2) identifying and defining world class standards in math and science; and

(3) working with the Consortium's partners to implement exemplary math and science programs.

Each of these steps is described briefly below.

First, the FiW Consortium sought to form partnerships with key organizations in the education and business communities to obtain technical, administrative, and research support in achieving its goals. Accordingly, the FiW has established working partnerships with numerous organizations, including the U.S. Department of Education, the North Central Regional Education Lab (NCREL), and policymakers at the national level, including members of Congress.

Under its agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, the Consortium committed to work with the Department to explore general outcome and specific math and science competencies in a study of global competition. It also promised to develop world class standards and align these standards with their local curricular and instructional programs and to support the acceleration of technology implementation as it pertains to math and science achievement.

In addition, the Consortium agreed to develop a math and science resource center on the World Wide Web, as well as collaborate with the Department to disseminate the Consortium's findings. It also pledged to include all students in its efforts, including students with disabilities.

The Consortium resolved to develop and implement assessment instruments to determine student achievement, and to implement staff development training to assist teachers in mastering new content and instructional strategies.

Further, the Consortium committed to entering into school and business partnerships to foster the identification of the needed skills and knowledge to achieve world class standards.

Finally, the Consortium agreed to commit the needed resources to ensure that the joint effort did not fail due to a lack of resources. Taken together, these commitments form a unique partnership between a group of local school districts and the Department of Education.

Second, the FiW leadership is working with its partners to identify and define world-class standards in the areas of math and science. As part of this effort, FiW students participated in TIMSS, the most ambitious, comprehensive, and rigorous international assessment of math and science ever undertaken. With financial support from the individual boards of education that make up the Consortium, FiW fourth, eighth, and twelfth grade students, their teachers, and their schools participated in the TIMSS study.

Although an invitation to participate in TIMSS was extended to all school districts in the nation, the FiW Consortium was the only group that took advantage of this opportunity.

Third, FiW districts are working together to design and implement exemplary programs in mathematics and science. To achieve this goal, FiW leaders have established teacher learning networks which bring together staff from across the Consortium to identify, develop, and enact model programs in math and science instruction.

Teams are self-identified and include teachers, principals, superintendents, and other educational staff. Relying on data from TIMSS, as well as research on best instructional and curricular practices, the Consortium hopes to improve achievement by strengthening instruction, using more effective assessment tools, learning about new curricula materials and techniques, and identifying and addressing topics or areas where their students demonstrate weaknesses.

In sum, the districts that make up the FiW Consortium have sparked the attention of the education community by agreeing to work together to become first in the world in math and science. The following sections describe the efforts to enact their plan, as well as some of the their preliminary results.

In particular, the next section describes the results of the Consortium's effort to measure its performance against an international benchmark. The following two sections look at what might account for the high achievement levels obtained, exploring first the effect of socio-economic factors, and then the Consortium-wide context for teaching and learning. The subsequent section describes the Consortium's efforts to develop learning communities of educators, policymakers, and community leaders.

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[ Introduction ]

[ How Well Did the FiW Consortium Perform When Benchmarked Against an International Measure of Math and Science Achievement? ]

This page last modified on November 23, 1999. (dtm)