The National Science Foundation has announced a $3.7 million grant to Ithaca College professors Eric Robinson, Margaret Robinson, and John Maceli to establish the national Center for Implementation of Secondary School Comprehensive Instructional Materials. The center will be the focal point for the dissemination and implementation of new mathematics curricular materials in school districts across the country.
The grant puts these three educators at the heart of a national effort to reform the mathematics curriculum and how it is taught.
The reform effort has been under way since the 1980s, culminating with the publication of national standards for curriculum, evaluation, performance, and assessment in school mathematics by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. As those new standards have evolved, so too have innovative approaches to math curriculum and pedagogy. The new national center in Ithaca will guide the effort to introduce these methods and materials into schools and to encourage their widespread inclusion in a new generation of mathematics textbooks.
The Robinsons and Maceli will work closely with five "satellite sites" around the country, each of which has developed a particular approach to new math materials. The satellite sites include the Core-Plus Mathematics Project at Western Michigan University; the Interactive Mathematics Program at Sonoma State University; ARISE: Applications/Reform in Secondary Education in Boston; MATH Connections: A Secondary Mathematics Core Curriculum Initiative in Connecticut; and the Systematic Initiative for Montana Mathematics and Science Project at Montana State University, Bozeman.
Eric Robinson, the project director and principal investigator for the grant, says each of the five projects includes significant changes in traditional content and the context in which mathematical topics are presented. "As these curricula emerge," says Robinson, "the vision of sound systemic reform in mathematics education has a real potential of being realized. This vision will result in the empowerment of all students with mathematical knowledge and abilities appropriate for an increasingly mathematically dependent world. The vision of reform in mathematics education has been agreed upon by thousands of educators, policy makers, community leaders, and all the major professional societies. However, this vision will not be realized unless sound, comprehensive reform occurs in individual classrooms across the country."
The new national center at Ithaca will coordinate the distribution of these materials, informing various constituencies about the new approaches to math and working with the satellite sites to assist in the development of successful implementation strategies in schools across the country. The central site will function impartially, helping school districts make connections with the curricular approach that seems right for their teachers and students.
With the projects scattered from California to Connecticut, the use of current technology will be essential to the dissemination effort. The center at Ithaca will maintain a database of up-to-date information about each project, including evaluation data where the programs have been implemented. A listserv will be able to announce new materials available to participants, and an extensive Web site will offer descriptive information about all the projects, including sample materials. The electronic information will allow widespread diffusion of the initiative across the country.