The National Science Foundation has funded 22 Collaboratives for Excellence in Teacher Preparation. Despite the remarkable allocation of resources to this effort, it has proven exceptionally difficult to demonstrate the effectiveness of collaborative reform. In large part, this has resulted because of the difficulty of defining and measuring reform. The Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) was designed by the Evaluation Facilitation Group of the Arizona Collaborative for Excellence in the Preparation of Teachers (ACEPT). It is a 25‐item classroom observation protocol that is (a) standards based, (b) inquiry oriented, and (c) student centered. This instrument has provided the definition for reform and the basis for evaluation of the ACEPT collaborative. The data upon which this report is based were collected over a period of more than 2 years from 153 public school, college, and university mathematics and science classrooms. A trained team of observers consisting of two faculty members and seven graduate students was able to achieve exceptionally high levels of interrater reliability. Internal consistency, as estimated by Cronbach's alpha, was also remarkably high. Correlation coefficients ranging from 0.88 to 0.97 between RTOP scores for classrooms, and mean normalized gain scores for students in those classrooms on achievement measures demonstrate that reform, as defined by ACEPT and measured by the RTOP, has been effective.

Previous research has found that scientific concepts can be meaningfully classified as descriptive (i.e., concepts such as predator and organism with directly observable exemplars) or theoretical (i.e., concepts such as atom and gene without directly observable exemplars). Previous research has also found that developing understanding of descriptive and theoretical concepts is linked to students' developmental levels, presumably because the procedural knowledge structures (i.e., reasoning patterns) that define developmental levels are needed for concept construction. The present study extends prior theory and research by postulating the existence of an intermediate class of concepts called hypothetical (i.e., concepts such as subduction and evolution with exemplars that cannot in practice be observed due to limits on the normal observational time frame). The hypothesis that three kinds of scientific concepts exist was tested by constructing and administering a test on concepts introduced in a college biology course. As predicted, descriptive concept questions were significantly easier than hypothetical concept questions, than were theoretical concept questions. Further, because concept construction presumably depends in part on developmental level, students at differing developmental levels (levels 3, 4, and 5, where level 5 is conceptualized as ‘post‐formal’ in which hypotheses involving unseen entities can be tested) were predicted to vary in the extent to which they succeeded on the concepts test. As predicted, a significant relationship (p < 0.001) was found between conceptual knowledge and developmental level. This result replicates previous research, and therefore provides additional support for the hypothesis that procedural knowledge skills associated with levels of intellectual development play an important role in declarative knowledge acquisition and in concept construction. The result also supports the hypothesis that intellectual development continues beyond the ‘formal’ stage during the college years, at least for some students. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 996–1018, 2000

The Arizona Collaborative for Excellence in the Preparation of Teachers (ACEPT) Program is one of several reform efforts supported by the National Science Foundation. The primary ACEPT reform mechanism has been month‐long summer workshops in which university and community college science and mathematics faculty learn about instructional reforms and then attempt to apply them in their courses. Previous ACEPT evaluation efforts suggest that, when implemented, the reforms boost undergraduate student achievement. The initial purpose of the present study was to discover whether enrollment of preservice teachers in one or more of these reformed undergraduate courses is linked to the way they teach after they graduate and become in‐service teachers. Assuming that a link is found, a second purpose was to discover whether the presumed positive effect is in turn linked to their students' achievement. In short, the answer appears to be yes, at least among the biology teachers and students surveyed. Compared with controls, the biology teachers who had enrolled in one or more ACEPT reformed course during their teacher preparation program demonstrated significantly higher scores on the measure of reformed instruction and their students demonstrated significantly higher achievement in terms of scientific reasoning, nature of science, and biology concepts. These results support the hypothesis that teachers teach as they have been taught. Furthermore, it appears that instructional reform in teacher preparation programs including both methods and major's courses can improve secondary school student achievement. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 939–957, 2003

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The pinyon jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) is a primary seed disperser of pinyon pines (Pinus edulis and P. monophylla). Both the pinyon jay and the pinyon pines are experiencing significant decline. While the pinyon jay is a species of management value and conservation concern, little is known about its fecundity, among-flock dispersal, and population differentiation. We initiated genetic studies in pinyon jays using a hybridization enrichment technique to isolate seven polymorphic microsatellite repeats (AAAG and GATA) from the pinyon jay genome. A locus from the Mexican jay (Aphelocoma ultramarina) that amplifies robustly in pinyon jays is also reported. These eight loci revealed moderate to high diversity in an Arizona population of pinyon jays (4-36 alleles and H O 0.42-0.90). As in other species, tetranucleotide repeats produced easily resolved amplification products.