 |
|
|
what's happening |
PROJECT SUMMARY PRIME is a collaborative effort involving Illinois State University's Mathematics Education faculty and all 330 K-5 classroom mathematics teachers, their administrators, parents, and community partners in Peoria District 150, the second largest urban school district in Illinois. As a local systemic change effort the project responds to teacher needs and their request for professional support in phasing in Investigations in Number, Data and Space, a reform elementary mathematics curriculum that is aligned with both state and national standards. This curriculum was chosen by teachers; focuses on reasoning, problem solving, and number sense; and promotes needed grade-to-grade coordination and improvement in the district's K-5 mathematics program. The teacher enhancement efforts of the PRIME Project help fill a 20-year void in systemic professional development in mathematics teaching and is expected to impact performance of students on state math assessments, which has never risen above state averages. The specific objectives of PRIME are to: . Improve teachers' mathematical content knowledge, including knowledge of the technology used in Investigations. . Extend teachers' understanding of the pedagogy underlying effective implementation of the Investigations program.. Mentor teachers by promoting their reflective analysis of mathematics teaching and learning. . Foster the development of teacher leaders and communities of learners within and across schools. . Encourage and support teachers' outreach efforts to communicate with families and the broader community about ways of improving mathematics teaching and learning. Long-term goals include: . Improving student achievement in mathematics through an emphasis on problem solving, reasoning, and numbers sense and on the comprehensive development of conceptual understanding of mathematics; . Fostering better grade-to-grade K-5 program coordination leading to more successful entry into middle school mathematics; and . Developing structures necessary to sustain and extend the momentum of the PRIME Project beyond funding by working with individual schools to create a mechanism to insure continued growth. This effort complements the district's coordinated follow-through program. PRIME achieves these objectives by using a multi-faceted approach to local systemic change. The main thrust of the Project is the design, implementation, and evaluation of a 3.5-year teacher enhancement program that involves each teacher in nearly 150 hours of professional learning activity. This program features three intensive summer sessions focused on improving teachers' understanding of mathematics content and teaching practices related to the Investigations program and systematic, substantive follow-through during subsequent school years in the form of grade-level seminars, after school workshops, and extensive classroom-based support from PRIME staff. A Mathlinks Committee of 32 lead teachers from the 16 schools participating in the Project serves to monitor grade-level coordination and implementation of Investigations, and provides local input to PRIME staff for project activity. The PRIME project further benefits from significant parent, community, and business collaboration that provides student learning incentives and organized tutorial and mentor programs for K-5 students. By engaging all stakeholders, the PRIME collaborative seeks to promote and support qualitatively different approaches for teaching and learning K-5 mathematics. As part of a unified effort to improve mathematics education K-12 in Peoria, the Project provides a model to "prime" more successful entry to algebra. |
