UD professor named Spencer Fellowship recipient

10:35 a.m., July 16, 2003--Mary Ann Huntley, UD assistant professor of mathematics, has been chosen as a 2003-04 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow.

Mary Ann Huntley

The fellowship, one of 36 awarded nationally from a field of 200 nominees, supports early career scholars looking at important research questions about education.

Huntley plans to use the $50,000 award for her research project “Investigating Standards-Based Mathematics Education: A Study of Middle-Grades Students’ Algebraic Thinking.” The study will examine the impact of a reform mathematics curriculum on student’s conceptual understanding and skills in algebra.

“I am honored to have been selected for this prestigious award,” Huntley said. “I am excited to have the opportunity to conduct this research and look forward to attending the retreats with other fellowship awardees and members of the National Academy of Education.”

Since joining the UD faculty in 2002, Huntley has been involved with service-related activities involving secondary school mathematics education. Her research focuses on curricular influences on the teaching and learning of middle-and high school mathematics, specifically targeting the algebra strand of the curriculum, with an emphasis on what happens inside classrooms.

Before coming to UD, Huntley served as program director for the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va., research associate at the National Center for Improving Science Education, in Washington, D.C., and as an independent consultant for various research and educational institutions in the Washington, D.C., area.

A summa cum laude graduate of the State University of New York, Geneseo, where she received a bachelor of arts degree in mathematics and computer science, Huntley holds a master’s degree in applied mathematics from the University of Rochester, N.Y. Huntley also worked as an applied mathematician for five years prior to earning her doctorate in curriculum and instruction from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Article by Jerry Rhodes

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