The goals of the CMP Satellite Center are to accomplish a set of activities
that address: advocacy and outreach, leadership development, teacher preparation
and enhancement, research and documentation, and improvement of the CMP program.
- Advocacy and Outreach. As is the case in any attempt to substantially change
school practices and traditions, the reform of mathematics education in K-12
is entering a time of scrutiny and attack from different communities. As these
curriculum projects become available for use in schools, organized criticism
of the Standards has the potential to stop the debate before the curriculum
projects have a chance to demonstrate their effectiveness. The CMP satellite
will work internally, but also collectively with the other projects and, especially
the Center, to conduct activities that will advocate for curriculum as a central
means to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics, K-12 in this country.
The CMP Satellite will undertake the following types of outreach and advocacy
activities:
- Work with the Center to sponsor "potential users" conferences
around the country
- Develop reports and other materials to inform administrators, teachers,
and parents of the potential of curriculum as a vehicle for improvement
of mathematics programs in schools
- Continue to give public speeches in arenas that engage the target groups
in considering improvement of their programs in mathematics
- Assist in producing a newsletter (on-line or print) to promote ongoing
conversation about improving programs
- Work with the Center in sponsoring "Getting To Know Problem-Based
Curricula" conferences for administrators and parents.
- Leadership Development, Teacher Enhancement, and Teacher Preparation. The
new reform curricula call for a deeper knowledge and a broader view of mathematics
and of conducting a class based on inquiry. If these curricula are to be successful,
we must work on several fronts simultaneously. Curriculum directors, teacher
leaders, teachers, administrators and parents must be brought on board from
the beginning. To enhance the potential of these curricula, new teachers entering
the field must have the mathematical and pedagogical knowledge needed to teach
in a school utilizing reform curricula. The CMP Satellite will assist in teacher
activities aimed at providing information about CMP to schools, developing
leadership capacity needed to implement CMP, offering long-term support for
teachers of CMP, and working with teacher educators across the country to
integrate the new curricula into the preservice experiences. Specific activities
include:
- Assist the Center in conducting "Getting to Know CMP" workshops
- Conduct 2-3 five-day summer workshops for teams of leaders from school
districts across the country to build the capacity to provide the leadership
and support to implement the CMP curriculum in their district
- Sponsor national two-day workshops for users of CMP
- Conduct a 3-day national conference for teacher educators.
- Research and Documentation. Scrutiny of the mathematics reform effort in
this country is very intense. Of concern is the effectiveness of the curricula
in the areas of skill development and mathematical reasoning. The new curricula
must provide evidence of the nature of student understandings and reasoning
ability, as well as important basic skills. Most of these curricula are problem-based,
which is a very innovative and promising way to teach and learn mathematics.
However, the American public wants quick solutions. Consequently, part of
the research and documentation will include information on students during
the first year in the curriculum, in addition to the most important focus
on long-term gains made by students involved for several years with reform
curricula. Some documentation across projects will provide evidence to address
the following questions: "Do students retain deeper understanding of
mathematical concepts and processes from one level or grade to the next?"
and "Can students reason through and solve complex problems?" Of
special interest to CMP is the potential for teacher learning of mathematics
and pedagogy from the CMP materials. Ultimately, the experience with CMP,
or one of the other curricula, must help a teacher improve his or her knowledge
of mathematics and of teaching. As schools move through their textbook adoption
cycle every five years or so and choose new materials, or as a teacher moves
from school to school, there must be a substantial payoff or residual effect
for the teachers from the intense work involved in learning to teach one of
these NSF-funded curricula. In the advocacy efforts, as well as the enhancement
efforts this will be one of our foci. Documentation across projects will provide
evidence to be used in advocacy as well as enhancement work. The type of activities
that CMP will undertake in the research and documentation area include:
- Assist the Center in carrying out evaluation and assessment of the Show-Me
project
- Continue research on students' and teachers' knowledge at the end of
three years of a CMP curricula, utilizing funds generated by CMP royalties
and other sources
- Seek ways to study the performance of CMP students as they move through
high school
- Conduct research on students' knowledge in specific areas such as proportional
reasoning, algebra, geometry, and number sense.
- CMP Program Improvement. The NSF-funded curriculum projects used an interactive
pilot/revision/pilot/revision cycle in the careful development of materials.
In developing such curricula the authors simultaneously attended to many issues,
such as "What mathematical ideas will be developed? How will they be
developed? How and what assessment activities are needed? Do students retain
deep understanding as they move from one grade to the next? Is there cohesiveness
across the middle school curriculum and between elementary and middle school,
and between middle and high school? What kind of mathematical and pedagogical
help do teachers need to use the materials? What kinds of help do schools
need to gain the support of the community?" The research described earlier
and systematic feedback from the teachers of CMP will provide valuable information
for future improvement of the materials.
