Annual Report Overviews

Project Activities

The grant is providing support and professional development for elementary teachers in: (1) Albemarle County as they implement Investigations in Number, Data, and Space, and (2) Montgomery County as they implement Everyday Mathematics. We are currently implementing Investigations in kindergarten and the first grade in Albemarle County, and we are implementing Everyday Mathematics in K-2 in Montgomery County.

Marlene Robinson and Betti Kreye worked with teacher leaders during the 1999-2000 school year, and some of them piloted units of the reform curricula in their classes.

During the Summer 2000, we provided 10 days of professional development for the K-1 teachers in Albemarle County. This professional development was held during the weeks of June 19-23 and 26-30 and August 7-11 and 14-18. Teachers of both grades participated in the sessions. During June 26-30 and August 7-11, we provided concurrent sessions for some who were in days 1-5 and for some who were in days 6-10. The workshop leaders were Wayne Patty, Marlene Robinson, Diane Deckert, Jane Moore, Jill Cragg, and Amy Scherer with Deckert and Moore being the primary leaders. The mornings focused on units of Investigations that the teachers are currently teaching. The teachers participated in many of the activities that they will be using in their classrooms. An important activity each day was a "Behind the Scenes" set of questions to focus teacher attention on the mathematical ideas that each activity develops and on ways of assessing student understanding of that activity. A typical afternoon consisted of a discussion of a mathematical topic (e.g., basic statistics, block patterns, prime numbers, Fibonacci numbers) that was related to the activities, pedagogy, group work, assessment, and school issues. The teachers also completed surveys designed to measure their attitude toward mathematics, their pedagogical knowledge, and their content knowledge of mathematics.

During the Summer 2000, we provided 10 days of professional development for kindergarten teachers and 11 days for first and second grade teachers in Montgomery County. Teachers from all three grade levels participated together in the first two days. This professional development included the philosophy of Everyday Mathematics, activities at different grade levels to provide familiarity with the components of the program, parent communications, assessment issues, the components of the teacher resource materials, various levels of games and the significance of the games, daily routines, and K-2 scope and sequence. There was also a two day mini-conference which included math and science integration, math and social studies integration, and reading in the content area. In the remaining days of the professional development, teachers were divided according to grade level. At each grade level, the focus was on units of Everyday Mathematics that the teachers are currently teaching. For example, the teachers tabbed their teacher manuals as to the pacing guide; they discussed the various strands in mathematics and how they spiral throughout the program; they created classroom essentials for the beginning of school; and they discussed the role of the HomeLinks and the Toolkit. The workshop leaders were Jesse Wilkins, Maria Timmerman, Betti Kreye, Linda Salter, Susan Murphy, Loretta Scott, Mickie Esleeck, and Tricia Gregory. The experienced teachers of Everyday Mathematics were the primary leaders. The teachers also completed surveys designed to measure their attitude toward mathematics, their pedagogical knowledge, and their content knowledge of mathematics.

As part of the Internal Evaluation portion of the project, surveys of teachers’ attitudes toward teaching mathematics and mathematics in general, pedagogical content knowledge, and mathematical content knowledge were administered. These surveys have been and will be administered to each teacher as soon as possible after he(she) begins the professional development . Data collection is divided into four parts. The first part surveys attitudes, pedagogical beliefs, and beliefs about mathematics. Items on this survey are mostly of a Likert-type format asking teachers their level of agreement with given statements. The other three surveys assess teachers’ mathematical content knowledge in number and operations, algebra, data analysis and probability, geometry, measurement and proportional reasoning. The format of the items are multiple choice and short answer. Although the content surveys are meant to draw from K-5 mathematics, the level of the questions are meant to extend beyond the K-5 level. The hope is that data from these surveys can help us better address pedagogical issues as well as mathematical content with which teachers have the most trouble.

We held a meeting on March 21, 2000 to discuss the attitude and content surveys that Wilkins would prepare. Those attending this meeting were Patty, Mick, Wilkins, Kreye, Robinson, Sinicrope, and Jeane Joyner, a member of our Advisory Board.

An Advisory Board meeting was held on May 11, 2000.

We published the COMET newsletter in Spring 2000.