Preparing, Inspiring and Connecting Students to College and Opportunity: Increasing the Quality and Intensity of Professional Development for Mathematics Teachers

The College Board, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

The College Board, in partnership with LessonLab, Inc. and several urban school districts, seeks NSF funding for a three-year project to develop, pilot and evaluate the effectiveness and scalability of a blended offline/online professional development program for mathematics teachers of grades 6-12. This intensive PD program will provide teachers with the content knowledge and pedagogical skills necessary to deliver quality mathematics instruction to underserved students, so that a larger percentage of low-income and minority students may enroll and succeed in advanced-level mathematics courses, including AP Calculus and AP Statistics. The proposed project is the third component of a comprehensive mathematics system under development. Support from the GE Fund has enabled the College Board to develop the first two system components: the instructional materials for grades 6-12 (in the pilot phase at the time of proposal submission), and the embedded diagnostic assessments (under development at the time of proposal submission). Increasing the percentage of underserved minority students in upper-level classes requires a long-term commitment. But, for teachers' content knowledge and instructional skills to improve and classroom practices to change, intensive high-quality PD needs to be provided in a sustainable and scalable way. That is the challenge to which this project responds directly.