University of Wisconsin, Mathematics in Context (MiC): Satellite Information and Services

There are at least four groups of consumers of Mathematics in Context besides the students for whom the curriculum was developed. These groups are teachers, district administrators and decision makers, mathematics teacher educators, and parents. The success or failure of Mathematics in Context or any other reform-based curricula is in their hands. The issues related to Mathematics in Context for each of these groups is similar. They need clear, informative materials in order to understand the goals and philosophy of the curriculum in the adoption phase. There is also a need for people who can represent MiC and work with the publisher to provide continued support during the first few years following adoption.

The MiC Satellite will develop the materials and provide assistance required to address needs associated with these groups. It will:

• Provide staff to plan and conduct week-long leadership institutes for teacher leaders. The focus of these institutes will be the philosophy, mathematical content, pedagogy, and assessment features of the MiC curriculum. The goal will be for these teacher leaders to provide local support to districts implementing MiC.
  
  
• Maintain trained staff to address specific questions related to implementing MiC.
  
  
• Develop general awareness materials on MiC that can be used by districts interested in adopting reform-based materials.
  
  
• Review other reform curricula for potential transitions into and from MiC and, when possible, collect data to document these transitions.
  
  
• Prepare professional development packages to prepare teachers to implement MiC. These packages will be of varying lengths to meet the range of needs presented by districts.
  
  
• Document and inform potential users of the variety of ways that MiC can be implemented.
  
  
• Document teacher and administrator issues and concerns related to the implementation of MiC and use this information to assist in the development of materials to address these concerns.

A secondary focus of the MiC Satellite will be on assessment strategies across the middle school curricula. There will be three goals for this effort:

• Document and analyze the assessment options of the four middle school curricula and develop general statements about the assessment models and strategies used in reform-based middle school curricula.
  
  
• Produce a document discussing how to evaluate student work using assessment examples (and actual student responses) from the different curricula.
  
  
• Design and pilot an end-of-grade-eight assessment to be used by all the curricula to compare student achievement.