UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 35, Page 1
June 25, 1992
$1.1 million NSF grant to enhance math literacy skills

     A proposed plan to help redesign mathematics education in
Delaware has received a $1.1 million go-ahead from the National
Science Foundation, University of Delaware President David P. Roselle
announced June 17.
     Faculty and staff in mathematics education from the Mathematical
Sciences Teaching and Learning Center, the College of Education and
the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University-working with
the Delaware Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and school
administrators and teachers in eight districts-will use the 45-month
grant to increase the mathematical literacy of Delaware teachers and
students, Roselle said.
     "The goal of this project is to develop mathematical power in
students by putting less emphasis on rote learning and more on
reasoning, and by making math relevant to their lives," Roselle said.
"The NSF grant affirms the quality of work already under way in the
state, while enabling us to implement new initiatives in math
education."
     The project, "The Delaware Teacher Enhancement Partnership: A
Model for Implementing the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
(NCTM) Standards," will initially involve three school
districts- Colonial, Lake Forest and Capital, according to Ronald
Wenger, one of the grant's principal investigators and director of the
Mathematical Sciences Teaching and Learning Center.
     Co-principal investigators are: from the University-Beatriz
D'Ambrosio, assistant professor of mathematics education in the
Department of Educational Development; Kathleen Hollowell, coordinator
of secondary mathematics in-service programs; and Cliff Sloyer,
professor of mathematical sciences; and from the Colonial School
District-superintendent David Campbell.
     "Math education has been a nationwide and state concern," Wenger
said, "as studies consistently point out that America significantly
lags behind the rest of the industrial world in math performance."
     To address this problem, the NCTM formed the Commission on
Standards for School Mathematics, which published curriculum and
evaluation standards as well as standards for teaching, he explained.
     "These standards provide an exciting, important, sensible and
challenging vision of what mathematics education for all students
should become in the state of Delaware and nationally," Wenger said.
     "The goal of the partnership is to demonstrate how that vision
can be translated into an action plan to increase the mathematical
power of real teachers and real students in real classrooms," he said.
     A pilot program, with an emphasis on the math curriculum for
grades 6-9, has been under way in the Colonial School District, at the
New Castle Middle School and William Penn High School.
     "Colonial has been designated as an intensive implementation
center in the project," Wenger said.
     Two collaborative implementation centers also have been selected
and active during the pilot year.
     These are Central Middle School/ Dover High School in the Capital
District and W.T. Chipman Junior School/Lake Forest High School in the
Lake Forest District.
     Last summer, a pilot workshop was held for 18 teachers, and these
workshops will be continued under the grant for participating teachers
for the next four summers.
     "The teachers become students in order to experience first-hand
changes in teaching strategies and in the curriculum," Wenger said.
     "The goal is to strengthen their content knowledge in such areas
as statistics, probability and discrete mathematics, and to encourage
them to develop new lesson plans and to learn different strategies for
teaching mathematics, which are consistent with the NCTM standards."
     The emphasis is on situation-centered, or "real-life,"
mathematical problems, Wenger said.
     As part of the grant, a resource teacher will be selected in each
school to provide leadership in implementing the standards, and a
project resource teacher from the University will assist them.
     Moreover, Wenger said, the partnership is interested in
increasing the number of minority teachers in Delaware and includes
specific fellowships to support a minority leadership program.
     Workshops and extensive support during the school day also will
be provided during the year for participating teachers.
     Mathematics educators from other parts of the country will
observe the partnership program and provide advice.
     The partnership is designed to complement the activities of other
mathematics education projects in Delaware, including Project 301,
whose goal is to implement the standards in each of Delaware's 301
schools, and also Project 21, which focuses on systemic issues related
to the teaching of mathematics and science.
     The Delaware Teacher Enhancement Partnership evolved from the
Delaware Pre-Algebra/Algebra Projects, funded by a grant from the
Dwight D. Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Education Act and by the
University's Mathematical Sciences Teaching and Learning Center.
                                        -Sue Swyers Moncure