Mathematics

This cross center project between CLLC and EDC’s Division for Mathematics Learning and Teaching, provides two years of professional development and support to teams of middle and high school mathematics teachers in the Greater Boston area involved with the lesson study model of professional development. Our goals include enhancing knowledge of mathematics and pedagogy, introducing teachers to lesson study, building a community of teachers interested in lesson study, and learning how the Japanese lesson study model can be adapted to become a successful professional development model for U.S.

In this project, CSE draws on its own and other resources at EDC to provide technical assistance to the management of the Presidential Award program. Every year, that program honors exceptional science and mathematics teachers from every state. CSE facilitates the program’s work in several ways. Staff connects the project with national science and mathematics leaders who take a role in the awards process.

In collaboration with EDC’s Center for Learning and Leadership Communities, this project is producing a research-based professional development curriculum focused on geometric thinking in the middle grades. It is also creating a framework designed to help teachers better understand geometric thinking and how it develops in learners; a curriculum for professional development in geometry based on this framework; quantitative and qualitative studies of the curriculum’s impact; and research reports disseminating the results of this work.

This large-scale research and technical assistance project investigates the nature of elementary and middle school principals’ knowledge and beliefs about mathematics learning and teaching and the effect of these beliefs on the principals’ practice of classroom observation and teacher supervision.

CME Project is a rigorous, coherent four-year high school mathematics curriculum designed to help students develop mathematical proficiency. CME Project fits into the familiar four-year high school course structure while maintaining mathematical relevance and rigor and integrating key concepts from the sciences and other fields.

The Urban District Collaborative, a consortium of EDC, SRI, Bay Area Research Group, Policy Studies Associates, and mathematics directors from nine urban school districts, has built a National Math Directors Network to focus on the collection and use of evidence in shaping district policies on teachers’ instructional practice. The network convenes regular seminars and provides support for district-based research and evaluation.

The mathematics teachers at Danvers (Mass.) High School are participating in a Japenese model of professional development known as Lesson Study. Supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Education, the teachers are using one full release day per month to pursue this professional development project. Under the guidance of EDC’s Jane Gorman, the group followed a cycle of lesson planning, observation, revision, and recording of a lesson for Algebra 1 students.

This project provides two years of professional development and support to teams of middle and high school mathematics teachers in the Greater Boston area involved with the lesson study model of professional development. Our goals include enhancing knowledge of mathematics and pedagogy, introducing teachers to lesson study, building a community of teachers interested in lesson study, and learning how the Japanese lesson study model can be adapted to become a successful professional development model for U.S. secondary school mathematics teachers.

EDC is developing, field-testing, and evaluating a comprehensive K–5 mathematics curriculum designed to address two challenges. First, the curriculum provides a learning-by-doing model of professional development, allowing teachers to gain a more profound understanding of fundamental mathematics through the natural course of their daily work. Second, it provides high-quality mathematics content and pedagogy for districts that want to change but need additional help and districts that have tried and rejected other models of reform.