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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 272 366 SE 046 694 AUTHOR Romberg, Thomas A.; Pitman, Allan TITLE The Urban Mathematics Collaborative Projects. Annual Report to the Ford Foundation. Program Report 86-1. INSTITUTION Wisconsin Center for Education Research, Madison. SPONS AGENCY Ford Foundation, New York, N.Y. PUB DATE Dec 85 NOTE 80p. PUB TYPE Reports - Evaluative/Feasibility (142) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC04 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Curriculum Development; Inservice Education; *Interdisciplinary Approach; Learning Processes; Mathematics Education; *Professional Continuing Education; *Professional Development; Secondary Education; *Secondary School Mathematics; *Staff Development; *Urban Schools; Workshops IDENTIFIERS *Ford Foundation ABSTRACT Descriptions of major activities for each of the seven Urban Mathematics Collaborative Projects sponsored by the Ford Foundation are contained in this report. These include: (1) Cleveland Collaborative for Mathematics Education; (2) Los Angeles Collaborative: Professional Links with Urban Schools; (3) Philadelphia Urban Mathematics Collaborative; (4) San Francisco Urban Mathematics Collaborative; (5) Twin Cities Urban Mathematics Collaborative; (6) Durham Collaborative: The Durham Mathematics Council; (7) Pittsburgh Urban Mathematics Collaborative; and (8) Technical Assistance Project. These are followed by observations, reflections and final comments from the supervisory team. The appendix contains summary reports from each of the seven collaborative projects. (JM) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ***********************************************************************

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Page 1: DOCUMENT RESUME - ERIC · DOCUMENT RESUME ED 272 366 SE 046 694 AUTHOR Romberg, Thomas A.; Pitman, Allan TITLE The Urban Mathematics Collaborative Projects. Annual. Report to the

DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 272 366 SE 046 694

AUTHOR Romberg, Thomas A.; Pitman, AllanTITLE The Urban Mathematics Collaborative Projects. Annual

Report to the Ford Foundation. Program Report86-1.

INSTITUTION Wisconsin Center for Education Research, Madison.SPONS AGENCY Ford Foundation, New York, N.Y.PUB DATE Dec 85NOTE 80p.PUB TYPE Reports - Evaluative/Feasibility (142)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC04 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS Curriculum Development; Inservice Education;

*Interdisciplinary Approach; Learning Processes;Mathematics Education; *Professional ContinuingEducation; *Professional Development; SecondaryEducation; *Secondary School Mathematics; *StaffDevelopment; *Urban Schools; Workshops

IDENTIFIERS *Ford Foundation

ABSTRACTDescriptions of major activities for each of the

seven Urban Mathematics Collaborative Projects sponsored by the FordFoundation are contained in this report. These include: (1) ClevelandCollaborative for Mathematics Education; (2) Los AngelesCollaborative: Professional Links with Urban Schools; (3)Philadelphia Urban Mathematics Collaborative; (4) San Francisco UrbanMathematics Collaborative; (5) Twin Cities Urban MathematicsCollaborative; (6) Durham Collaborative: The Durham MathematicsCouncil; (7) Pittsburgh Urban Mathematics Collaborative; and (8)Technical Assistance Project. These are followed by observations,reflections and final comments from the supervisory team. Theappendix contains summary reports from each of the sevencollaborative projects. (JM)

***********************************************************************Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made

from the original document.***********************************************************************

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OP EDUCATIONOffice of Educational 116814101 and Improvement

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATIONCENTER (ERIC)

This document has been reproduced asreceivrid from the person or organizationoriginating it

0 Minor changes have been made to improvereproduction Quality

Points of view or opinions stated in this docu-Lmitt do not necessarily represent officialOERI position or °obey

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REPRODUCE THIS

MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED IS

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TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."

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Program Report 86-1

ANNUAL REPORT TO THE FORD FOUNDATION:THE URBAN MATHEMATICS COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS

Thomas A. Romberg and Allan Pitman

A Report fromthe Urban Mathematics Collaborative Documentation Project

Wisconsin Center for Education ResearchSchool of Education

University of WisconsinMadison, Wisconsin

Deceml2er 1985

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The work of the Documentation Project was supported by a grant fromthe Ford Foundation to the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.

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WISCONSIN CENTER FOR EDUCATION RESEARCH

MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research is to improvethe quality of American Eduction for all students. Our goal is thatfuture generations achieve the degree of knowledge, tolerance,sensitivity, and complex thinking skills necessary to ensure a productiveand enlightened democratic society. We are willing to explore solutionsto major problems, recognizing that radical change may be necessary tomeet our goal.

Our approach is interdisciplinary because the problems of education inthe United States go far beyond pedagogy. We therefore draw on theknowledge of scholars in psychology, sociology, history, economics,philosophy, and law as well as experts in teacher education, curriculum,and administration in order to arrive at a deeper understanding ofschooling.

Work of the Center clusters in four broad areas:

. Learning and Development focuses on individuals, in particularon their variability in basic learning and development processes.

. Classroom Processes seeks to adapt psychological constricts tothe improvement of classroom learning and instruction.

. School Processes focuses on schoolwide issues and variables,seeking to identify administrative and organizational practicesthat are particularly effective.

. Social Policy is directed toward delineating the conditionsunder which social policy is likely to succeed, the ends towhich it is suited, and the constraints which it faces.

The Wisconsin Center for Education Research is a noninstructional unitof the University of WisconsinMadison School of Education. The Centeris supported primarily with funds from the Office of Educational Researchand Improvement/Department of Education, the National Science Foundation,and other governmental and nongovernmental sources in the U.S.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Introduction

Project Descriptions3

Cleveland Collaborative for Mathematics Education (C2ME). . 4

Los Angeles Collaborative: Professional Links withUrban Schools (+PLUS+)

5Philadelphia Urban Mathematics Collaborative 6San Francisco Urban Mathematics Collaborative 7Twin Cities Urban Mathematics Collaborative 8Durham Collaborative: The Durham Mathematics Council . . . 9Pittsburgh Urban Mathematics Collaborative 10Technical Assistance Project 11

Observations and Reflections 12

Final Comments17

References19

Appendix: Sumaary Reports for the Seven Urban MathematicsCollaborative Projects 21

Cleveland Collaborative for Mathematics Education (C2ME). . 23

Los Angeles Collaborative: Professional Links withUrban Schools (+PLUS+) 31

Philadelphia Urban Mathematics Collaborative 41San Francisco Urban Mathematics Collaborative 51Twin Cities Urban Mathematics Collaborative 57Durham Collaborative: The Durham Mathematics Council . . 65Pittsbm-gh Urban Mathematics Collaborative 73

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I. INTRODUCTION

During the past year, the Ford Foundation established sevencollaborative projects in urban centers across the United States, adocumentation project to monitor the activities of the sevencollaboratives, and a technica] assistance project which will serveas a source of information for the collaborative projects. It wasthe intention of the Foundation that, as the collaborative projectsdevelop, they will provide a framework for enhanced teacherprofessional activities. The initial objective of the Foundation wasto provide nondirective support that would enable each network todevelop its organizational framework and to choose its own focus ofinterest. As the effort continues, it will focus on the effects ofthe developing networks on the professional lives of theparticipating teachers and on the identification of issue-basedoutcomes. The Foundation's intention in this effort is consonantwith the recommendations of the Conference Board of the MathematicalSciences (1984):

The Conference recommends the establishment of a nationwidecollection of local teacher support networks to link teacherswith their colleagues at every level, and to provide readyaccess to information about all aspects of schoolmathematics. (p. 5)

The broad sense in which the term colleague is used isexemplified by the objectives "strongly endorsed by the conference":

- to extend the sense of professionalism among teachers bybuilding a support system that links them to colleagues inthe mathematical sciences, inside and outside of theschools;

- to provide teachers at all levels with colleagues upon whomth y can call for information concerning any aspect of schoolmathematics; and

- to enable teachers to enlarge their visws of mathematics,their sources of examples, and their repertoire of classroomskills in communicating mathematics. (CBMS, 1984, p. 15)

It has been the aim of the Foundation to assist in theestablishment of networks in which mathematics teachers canparticipate as colleagues with mathematicians in business,government, higher education, and industry. In these networks,mathematics teachers will be participants rather than clients.

The purpose of the Documentation Project is to record theprogress of each collaborative in defining, refining, and redefiningits focal concerns. The efforts of each project, as well as those ofthe Ford Fou-4atiou itself, need to be studied for three reasons.

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First, each project and the Ford Foundation need to be kept informedabout what is happening. Ongoing activities, the strategies used,and the effects of those activities on the lives of the teachers andothers who are participants in the project need to be documented.Second, it is important for the projects, tne Ford Foundation, andthe educational policymaking community to understand thecharacteristics and relationships inherent within each project.Because changes occur slowly over time, the activities which arecarried out, the actual changes in behavior, the anticipatedoutcomes, the unanticipated outcomes, and the impediments encounteredunder different circumstances need to be identified and studied.Third, although we expect each site to be different, we are confidentthat from the data it will be possible to identify project activitiesand strategies which can be generalized to different settings.

On-site data about the activities of the collaboratives has beencollected from a variety of sources including:

- the directors and coordinators of each project,

- the on-site participant observers from each project(reflecting the teachers' perspectives),

- on-site visits by the staff of the Documentation Project,

- meetings with Ford Foundation personnel and the twojoint meetings of the project directors, and

- surveys administered to participating teachers.

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II. PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS

A brief description of the major activities for each of theseven Urban Mathematics Collaborative Projects during 1985 ispresented in this section. The project activities are of threetypes: out-of-school professional activities, in-school activitiesto apply tha out-of-school work, and networking activities tofacilitate communications among participants.

The five projects, which began in February 1985 are describedfirst, followed by descriptions of the two projects which began inOctober 1985. A description of the Technical Assistance Project thenfollows. (A more complete summary of each collaborative project isappended to this report.)

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Cleveland Collaborative for Mathematics Education (C2ME)

Director: Paula AndersonCoordinator: Harriet JakobFunding Agent: Cleveland Education Fund

The out-of-school activities of C2ME consisted of courses

offered to teachers, teacher internships, and a small grants program.C ME held two week-long courses at Lorain County Community College'sHigh Technology Center. Teacher response to the courses wasexcellent, with the number of applicants doubling from the firstsession to the second session. Cleveland has set a two-year goal forthe Teacher Internship Project to produce ten new work placements inindustry as well as eight university placements. Although eleventeacher internships in industry w2re achieved last summer, only oneuniversity placement was made. C ME feels that the goal foruniversity intern placement was unrealistic. However, their effortshave produced four university scholarships for Cleveland mathematicsteachers. The Cleveland Education Fund made grants to sevensecondary mathematics teachers as a part of the Small Grants Program.In an effort to stimulate more proposals, C2ME held a separateInformational meeting for mathematics teachers to explain theapplication process and to answer questions.

The major in-school project was the creation of the MathematicsTeachers Resource Center at Cuyahoga Community College. ThreeCleveland mathematics teachers were hired to establish and to staffthe Center. The Center makes films and computer software availablefor previewing, catalogues mathematics materials and resources, anadistributes free posters and materials. The Resource Center willserve as host to the Greater Cleveland Council of Teachers ofMathematics and will offer other mini-presentations.

To provide networking, a symposium series and a newsletter havebeen started. The first symposium was held at The SOHIO (StandardOil of Ohio) Research Center on May 30. It included a tour of thefacility, a dinner, and a speaker. Forty-seven mathematics teachersattended. Planning is underway for symposia to be held at theheadquarters of Eaton Corporation in November and at NASA in January1986. The C

2ME newsletter was first distributed in September 1985

A calendar of Resource Center activities appeared in the first issueof the newsletter.

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Los Angeles Collaborative:

Professional Links with Urban Schools (+PLUS+)

Director: Peggy FunkhouserCoordinator: Toby BornsteinFunding Agent: Los Angeles Educational Fund

The +PLUS+ effort is unique in the set of coliaborative projectsin that it is focusing its attention on a small group of teachersrather than on all teachers in the district.

+PLUS+ has established three collaborative teams, each teamconsisting of the mathematics department of a high school, twobusiness associates, and two postsecondary associates. The teams arethe networking component of the project. Two retreats were held forall +PLUS+ participants, one in May and one in September. At theretreats, the teachers shared their observations with their teammatesand collaborated on their action plans. Each team will continuenetworking through exchange of information at departmental andfaculty meetings, at school/community meetings held at each school,at a Practitioners' Night, in interchanges between schools, duringsummer internships in industry, and at summer institutes atuniversities.

The out-of-school activities for the Los Angeles Collaborativeincluded a series of summer site visits. Members of the threecollaborative teams visited each others' high school, postsecondary,and industry sites. During these visits, there were presentations,workshops, and tours as well as opportunities for team members tointeract in professional environments. Future plans consist of fourdinner planning meetings hosted by industry and universityassociates.

In-school activities will be supported via technical assistancegrants. Guidelines for the $2500 team planning grantP were discussedat the second retreat. Also, the development of team planning skillsand use of staff development release time for execution of in-schoolactivities are planned.

Collaboration with other initiatives is to be enhanced through aproposed computer networking system.

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Philadelphia Urban Mathe cs Collaborative

Director: Wayne RansomCoordinator: Herb IsakoffFunding Agent: The Franklin Institute

The Philadelphia collaborative differs from the other projectsin that it is concentrating its initi 1 efforts on supporting,supplementing, and acting as a catalyst and bridge between other,existing teacher support initiatives.

The major out-of-school activity of the Philadelphia MathematicsUrban Collaborative was the Summer Institute held at DrexelUniversity July 1-31, 1985. This was a successful undertaking.Eighteen participants, representing eleven senior high schools, wereinstructed in computers, introduction to analysis, and special topicsin mathematics. Participants received six semester hours ofpost-baccalaureate college credit. The Summer Institute wassponsored jointly by the collaborative, Philadelphia Renaitiance inScience and Mathematics (PRISM), the School District of Philadelphia,Philadelphia Regional Introduction for Minorities and Engineering(PRIME), and Drexel University.

Future plans for the out-of-school component consist of activeparticipation in computer workshops planned with Community College ofPhiladelphia and other area institutions, and an extension of the1985 Summer Institute to be held again at Drexel next summer.

As part of tha network component of the Philadelphiacollaborative, arrangements hava been made with the Association ofTeachers of Mathematics of Philadelphia and Vicinity (ATMOPAV) to useATMOPAV's newsletter. Furthermore, the ATMOPAV membership fee foreach of the approximately 450 senior high school mathematics teachersin the Philadelphia school system was paid by the collaborative. Itis hoped that this will contribute to an increase in the number,interest, and involvement of teachers in ATMOPAV activities.

For in-school activities, the collaborative has established aworking relationship with two other PRISM components: mini-grantsand teachers in industry. This led to the awarding of mini-grants tothree senior high mathematics teachers for the 1985-86 school yearand the securing of three fellowships for 1985. The in-schoolcomponent will be supplemented through monthly activities in themathematics department meetings of the senior high schools andvocational technical high school. Speakers will be drawn fromuniversities and industry as well as from the pool of teachers whohave been participating in the collaborative's activities.

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San Francisco Urban Mathematics Collaborative

Director: Gladys ThacherCoordinator: Theresa Hernandez-HeinzFunding Agent: Public Education Fund

The out-of-school activities of the San Francisco UrbanMathematics Collaborative Project began with a kick-off reception onMarch 19, 1935. The purpose of this reception was to celebrate id

publicize the awarding of the Ford Foundation Grant. Seventy-fiveSan Francisco Unified School District high school mathematicsteachers were presented with information concerning the TeacherInstitute. The reception also provided an opportunity for theteachers to meet and Zo socialize with one another. The Institute,which was co-sponsored with the Exploratorium, was held in the summerof 1985. A primary goal of the Institute was to emlhasize themathematics that underly the major concepts of physics in theexhibits of the Exploratorium. Workshops were conducted by theExploratorium staff to present the physics concepts involved invisual and auditory perception, color and optics, and waves andsound. Mathematics from the areas of algebra, geometry,trigonometry, calculus, and probability and statistics was discussedin regard to these topics and exhibits.

The collaborative also established a Dinner Lecture Series tobridge the gap between the theory of mathematics and its applicationsin today's world. The series will also help to establish collegialrelationships and networking between teachers and other mathem_ticsprofessionals. Three weeks after each dinner, a follow-up sessionwill be helms to provide teachers with the opportunity to brainstormand generate classroom activities. Teachers who r.ttend the follow-upsessions become eligible for mini-grart awards. Ideas for mini-grantprojects are rresently being generated.

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Twin Cities Urban Mathematics Collaborative

Co-Directors: William Miller and Harvey KeynesCoordinator: Chris EnnisFunding Agent: School of Mathematics, University of Minnesota

The out-of-school activities of this project began with theestablishment of the Twin Cities Pre-College Mathematics Society.The Society has held three dinner meetings to bring secondarymathematics teachers together with other members of the mathematicscommunity of the Twin Cities. Approximately 60 teachers as well as15-25 representatives from corporations and colleges attended each ofthe meetings. The meetings were 'designed to include time forinteracting and socializing, as well as for a speaker.

The major activity of the collaborative was the UrbanMathematics Collaborative Summer Institute. Nineteen teachers,representing eleven schools, participated in the three-weekinstitute, which was a combination of Honeywell lectures (outsidespeakers), writing projects, and a problem-solving seminar. A seriesof monthly seminars for the participants in the Summer Institute hr efollowed.

The in-school activities of the collaborative will evolve fromthe writing projects developed during the summer.

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Durham Collaborative: The Durham Mathematics Council

Director: J. Keith BrownCoordinator: Jo Ann LutzFunding Agent: Fund for the Advancement of Science and Mathematics

in North Carolina

The immediate goal of this project is to ensure that allteachers know about the project and that they become involved in itsactivities.

The out-of-school activities will consist of a eries ofseminars on mathematics and its applications. The seminars will begiv!n by professional mathematicians and computer scientists whoseemployers are also furnishing facilities and refreshments. Mostseminars will be held after school.

The project is also funding three junior high teachers to attenda two-day Family Mathematics Inservice at Berkeley, California inJanuary, 1986. Teachers are also being encouraged to apply for fundsto go to the NCTM meeting in Washington, DC, in April. Teachers whoattend these meetings will be expected to conduct sessions for otherteachers in Durham to share what they learned.

For the in-school component, a Professional Development Plan isbeing solicited from each teacher. The plan is required fromteachers who apply for funds. These plans should help both theCouncil and teachers themselves focus their activities on areas thatare of most interest and need. A form has been developed to helpteachers complete their Professional Development Plans.

A steering committee comprised of one teacher from each of the15 schools participating in the collaborative has been formed. Thiscommittee will meet with the Council director to talk over plans forthe Council. These teachers will help disseminate information to theother teachers at their schools.

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Pittsburgh Urban Mathematics Collaborative

D'rector: Leslie Salmon-CoxCoordinator: Martina JacobsFunding Agent: Allegheny Conference Education Fund

The initial attention of the Pittsburgh Urban MathematicsCollaborative focused on sharing information with relevant audiencesthat were previously unaware of the ccllaborative. These includedmembers of the Pittsburgh Partnerships in Education Program, officersof the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, all secondary principalsand chairpeople of mathematics departments in secondary schools, aswell as district supervisors and administrators.

The Pittsburgh collaborative is directing its initial efforttoward curriculum development. Westinghouse Electric Corporationsponsored the opening event for the collaborative, a dinner andworkshop for mathematics chairpersons held on Nov. 1 and 2. A talkabout discrete mathematics and other new topics in mathematics wasgiven. At the workshop the group engaged in two kinds of needsassessment: an appraisal of individual needs related to their newlyenhanced set of responsibilities as chairpersons and a discussion ofthe needs of the faculty in their respective buildings.

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Technical Assistance Project

Coordinator: Mark DriscollFunding Agent: Educational Development Corporation (EDC)

In October 1985 the scope of the Urban Mathematics CollaborativeProject expanded to include a technical assistance component. Thisrole was given to EDC, the Education Development Corporation. TheTechnical Assistance Project was established to provide responsiveassistance in five areas. First, EDC is to provide generalinformation about mathematics and mathematics education. (This couldinvolve provision of direct assistance or the identification ofresources local to the individual UMC projects). Second, EDC is toprovide assistance in planning and implementing the various types oftraining identified from time to time as necessary for teachers andothers involved in the projects. Third, EDC will facilitatecommunication between the various projects in the UMC initiative.Fourth, EDC will provide assistance in materials development. Fifth,EDC will provide assistance in the planning, identification andimplementation of systems of operation within the individualcollaboratives.

To date, the task of the Technical Assistance Project has beentwofold: one, to sensitize the personnel at the various sites to thebreadth of resources available from EDC, and two, to assistindividual projects through "reactive listening" in theidentification of concerns and the appropriate forms of support thatThey can use. Initial contacts with the local projects have beensuccessful in both these areas.

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III. OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS

After visiting the sites and examining the information about theactivities, concerns, and problems faced by the teachers andadministrators at eacts site, the most obvious conclusion as thateach project is different. In each site, the teachers wereoverwhelmed by local problems including administrative requirements,curricular guidelines, mandated tests, and inadequate textbooks, aswell as a myriad of social and political problems in the community.

OBSERVATIONS

If one looks beyond the local issues, however, it is clear thatthere were similarities across the sites in both the activitiessponsored by the collaboratives and the problems faced by theteachers. Four of these similarities are discussed below.

First, the highest priority for each collaborative during theyear was to intellectually challenge a group of secondary mathematicsteachers. Since the job of teaching tends to become repetitive, manyof the teachers had not been intellectually challenged since they hadbeen in college many years before. The activities offered by thevarious collaboratives, such as the opportunity to solve mathematicalproblems, work on a computer, assist in an industry, and explorephysics problems at the Exploratorium, were very exciting for theteachers and greatly appreciated. Equally as important as theactivities themselves, was the opportunity for teachers to discusstheir plans and follow-up activities with others. This intellectualrefreshment was perhaps the most important outcome of everycollaborative in this, the first year of the Urban MathematicsCollaborative Projects.

Second, an important feature of the activities in eachcollaborative was that the teachers were treated as professionals.Teachers were not given already developed materials or proceduresthat they were expected to implement. Instead, the expectation wasthat the teachers would become more familiar with the issues and theproblems. Teachers were viewed as partners (concerned professionals)in the educational process, and their ideas were respected. Manyteachers initially viewed this approach suspiciously, since in thepast teachers have been treated as passive clients rather than ascollegues. The corporate dinners and visits to universities,however, gave teachers an opportunity to interact with industry anduniversity mathematical scientists. Teachers in all thecollaborative sites appreciated both the opportunity to be withindustry and university mathematics and the respect they were shown.

Third, the problems of curriculum organization and change werebeing debated in each project. In each site, personnel areattempting to work together to understand the changes happening in

is

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mathematics and the impact that this may have on teaching, both inrelation to new topics and in approaches to teaching.

Fourth, teachers in each site are beginning to become aware ofthe social and political problems related to curriculum andinstructional reform. They recognize the need for time to reflect,the need for additional training, and the problems inherent indeveloping materials for implementation in a classroom.Traditionally, teachers have been treated as conduits in a system,with the assumption that the only responsibility of the teacher wasto teach students in a classroom. However, if teachers are to becomereal partners in a reform effort (which would involve developingmaterials, trying them out, and discussing ideas with others), theywill need time to plan, to develop, to reflect, and to evaluate.Furthermore, many teachers are now beginning to realize that theirmathematics background is outdated, with their training oftenreflecting only the content of the NSF Institute programs of the1960s. After seeking new topics from industry, teachers are askingfor good examples they can use in thdr classroams, All teachersrealize that instructional materials (texts, software, tests, etc.)will need to be developed, although .iot every teacher or schooldistrict needs to develop these materials independently.

REFLECTIONS

Our reflections about what we have observed in the organizationand activities of the collaborative projects during this past yearare summarized under four topics: collaboration, professionalism,curriculum reform, and fundamental issues about schooling.

Collaboration

A central feature of each project is the collaboration betweenmathematicians from business and industry and universities with thesecondary mathematics teachers in an urban core setting. Eachproject, however, was establishes based on local strengths andexperiences. For example, in Minnesota, the support came from thestrength of the School of Mathematics and its experience! in dealingwith teachers throughout the state. In Philadelphia strength comesfrom the Franklin Institute, its background and experience in dealingwith teachers from the perspective of a Science Museum, and thestrong leadership of the Mathematics Coordinator in the PhiladelphiaSchool District. In Cleveland and Los Angeles, the background andexpertise of the Public Education Fund in soliciting and usingcorporate funds to support educational programs was their strength.

The strength of such organizations and the structuralrelationships to influential local groups and persons were criticalin initiating each of the projects. However, it is possible that

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these strengths may also contribute to an initial weakness in theevolution of the projects. The difficulties encountered .y most ofthe projects have not been in capitalizing on their own strengths butrather in getting support from other elements. Los Angeles andCleveland, for example, have been particularly successful in gettingindustrial support but have had difficulty in getting universityhelp, while just the opposite is truein Minneapolis and San Francisco. And in Philadelphia, significantinput from both universities and industry has been lacking.

All of the Ford projects operate within districts that haveother mathematics and science activities. The development of therelationship between the activities sponsored by the collaborativeproject and the other on-going activities will be important toexamine over time. Clearly, these activities should becomplementary, but the degree of complementarity will depend upon thekind of activities each collaborative project pursues. Over the nextthree to four years we would expect to see changes in theorganizational structure of each project as each attempts to buildinterdependent relationships and structures within its own district.

A final aspect of collaboration deals with school districtadministrative support for the projects' activities. Currently,there is nominal support at each site from school administrationpersonnel. Administration welcomes the opportunity for teachers tohave additional experiences and participate in a variety ofactivities. However, the collaborative projects are in a sensesubversive. They are alerting teachers to a reform movement whichchallenges the traditional ways of organizing and of teachingmathematics in the schools. It is not clear that administrators willwelcome the proposed changes in course structure, texts, tests, ormethods of teaching which participants of these collaborativeprojects are likely to propose.

Increased Professionalism

A primary rationale underlying the establishment ofcollaborative projects is increased teacher professionalism.Teachers are isolated from each other in buildings, from others in adistrict, from ideas about mathematics and the teaching ofmathematics, and from the process of change. Difficulties lie withineach school system. Teachers are often not treated as professionals.Nor is it clear that they are accustomed to thinking and dealing withi.sues professionally. Training of department chairs and leaders indepartments is needed. The teachers involved in these projects areexcited about the opportunity to discuss proulems and work withothers to improve the teaching of mathematics. Although they areaccustomed to working independently, most feel it is important towork with others.

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Curriculum Instructional Reform

The opportunity for curriculum reform is viewed skeptically bymost teachers. Dissonance has been created for many of the teachersin most of the projects. They are beginning to recognize the need toteach new mathematical ideas. This realization has been as a resultof exploring mathematics in the world of work, or physics, or problemsolving through the collaborative activities. However, thetransition trom these new ideas to classrooms and the structure inwhich mathematics is typically taught is not obvious. Curriculumreform implies a change in current status of the curriculum. Someteachers believe that we can make ameliorative and not radicalchange. Others feel that we must change texts and tests, etc., andnot simply add things to the existing programs. Finally, in workingtoward change, teachers are unsure of how to use external resources.For too long, materials have simply been given to teachers withoutgiving them an opportunity to reflect, think, or argue about whatneeds to be done. Now, the situation has changed, but most teachersare unaware of how to ask for and use external resources.

Fundamental Issues

The issues associated with the teaching and lear'ing ofmathematics today have not as yet been fully addresse/ in theseprojects. Four such issues need to be mentioned. First, teachersare becoming aware that there are new conceptions of what: mathematicsis important; they have examined new applications, the use of thecomputer, mathematics in the world of work, and problem solving.However, they have not shaken the belief that mathematics is acollection of concepts and skills mastered in some particular order.Today a fundamentally different world view about what is important 1.1mathematics is emerging. Adopting this new view about mathematicswould change notions about how schooling and school mathematics oughtto be organized and developed.

Second, teachers seem even less aware of the revolution inpsychology about how information is learned and stored. Learning isnot simply absorption but creation. Students come to classes alreadyhaving primitive notions about how to do much mathematics. Teachingis not simply pouring more ideas into students' heads. It is helpingthem to acquire and construct certain strategies or techniques fordoing mathematics.

Third, the job of teaching traditionally has been chsr-- ibrizedas being similar to guiding a tour (covering the pages of a ..ukfollowing a particular routine schedule). Teachers are now beingchallenged to change this tradition. It is not clear that they arein a position to make these changes without other administ.'Ative,social, and bureaucratic support. Such issues as yet have not beenaddressed in these projects.

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Finally, there is a social/political dimension to teaching thatis being brought to the att,.ktion of the teachers participating inthe collaborative: mathematics is a commodity which is beingdifferentially distributed to students. Different students havedifferent opportunities to learn. Central to this are the issuesassociated with minority students and equity issues. These issuesare only being touched upon in the projects.

In conclusion, only when the teachers in these projects begin toaddress some of these more fundamental issues will they begin to makethe kind of progress toward educational reform which underlies thisiniti-five.

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IV. FINAL COMMENTS

This initial year of the seven Urban Mathematics CollaborativeProjects has been exciting, enriching, and challenging for theparticipating teachers, for the staff of each project and also forus, the staff of the Documentation Project. In this regard, fourcomments about what we have learned are in order. First, the needfor a documentation project has now been verified. Prior to startingthis project it was easy to argue that such a monitoring effort wasnecessary for any reform effort (Romberg & Price, 1981). Now that wehave been able to identify substantial educational problems as theyare emerging, the need to document their evolution is imperative.For example, as teachers establish collegial relationships with othermathematicians, gain confidence, and increase in status, andtherefore begin to demand self-control, it will be important tofollow the potential for tension between those teachers and schooladministrators and how that tension is resolved. Successful projectexperiences should lead toward risk -- taking opportunities for teachersconsonant with the reform efforts. The degree to which risks areactually taken and how other teachers, union leaders, andadministrators respond Is going to be very interesting to observe anddocument.

A second example of an educational issue that merits documentingis the emerging premise that if one gets teachers to collaborate withothers, then quality mathematics instruction will be developed. It

is important to study whether the mechanics of collaboration willenhance or obscure the quality of mathematics instruction.Collaborating simply to make the current curriculum more efficientwould be counter to the goals of the reform movement.

These are only two examples of educational issues related to theemerging school mathematics reform movement that have emerged. Otherissues will be surfacing in the coming years. All warrant study.

Second, the wisdom of the Ford Foundations funding policy isbecoming apparent. The long-term guidelines with short-term fundingproposals is working to the benefit of all. The changes instrategies and focal problems that are already apparent in most ofthe projects reflect real progress. The evolution of collaborativenetworks within the complex social arrangements of urban cities isnot linear. Providing the collaborative projects with theflexibility to change target populations, to start new activities,and to make other changes as needed is excellent.

Third, the importance of the collegial relationship that hasevolved between the Documentation Project and each site wasunanticipated. Being viewed as dccumentors who are vitallyinterested in making the projects successful has become bothrewarding and demanding. Initially, we were viewed with some

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suspicion, but we did not present ourselves as inspectors. Now weare being called upon to help in a Jariety of ways.

Fourth, it is also clear that our strategy for gatheringinformation about the projects has been both fortuitous and in needof more structure. The complementary nature of the interests andinsights of Allan Pitman and Tom Romberg has been fortunate. Allanbrings external background to the problems of organizationalstructures and professionalism that have shed new light on theemerging problems. Similarly, the importance of the on-siteobservers at each site is clear. However, the voluminous and oftenredundant information about activities and the need to structure theinformation as the number of sites increases is apparent and isreflected in our proposal for renewal. Our reports for the lateryears of the Foundations efforts will be different in both quantityand quality based on what we have learned this year.

In all, this has been a good year.

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References

Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (1984). New goals formathematical sciences education. Washington, D.C.: Author.

Romberg, T. A., & Price, G. r. (1981, February). Assimilation ofinnovations into the culture of schools: Impediments to radicalchange. Paper presented bi-. the NIE Conference on Issues Relatedto the Implementation of Computer Technology in Schools,Washington, D.C.

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APPENDIX

SUMMARY REPORTS FOR THE SEVEN URBAN COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS

Cleveland Collaborative for Mathematics Education (C2ME)

Los Angeles Collaborative: Professional Links withUrban Schools (+PLUS+)

Philadelphia Urban Mathematics CollaborativeSan Francisco Urban Mathematics CollaborativeTwin Cities Urban Mathematics CollaborativeDurham Collaborative: The Durham Mathematics CouncilPittsburgh Urban Mathematics Collaborative

The following reports are brief summaries of each of the sevencollaborative projects funded by the Ford Foundation in 1985. Adraft of each report was written in October or November. The contentof the final version was approved by each project.

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SUMMARY REPORT:CLEVELAND COLLABORATIVE Fon MATHEMATICS EDUCATION (C2

ME)

by

Thomas A. Romberg & Allan PitmanUrban Mathematics Collaborative Documentation Project

University of Wisconsin-Madison

December 1985

PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT

The intent of this report is to summarize the initial Ictivitiesof the Cleveland Collaborative fol. Mathematics Education (C ME). Itshould be understood that this report is intended to be factual andinterpretive. It is not the intent of the Documentation Project tojudge whether or dot the organization of this collaborative or theactivities it has carried out meet the objectives of the FordFoundation.

The interpretations have been made in light of the intent of theFord Foundation Foundation to establish projects which were:

- to extend the sense of professionalism among teachers bybuilding a support system that links them to colleagues inthe mathematical sciences, inside and outside the schools;

- to provide teachers at all levels with colleagues upon whomthey can call for information concerning any aspect of schoolmathematics; and

- to enable teachers to enlarge their view of mathematics,their sources of examples, and their repertoire of classroomskills in communicating mathematics.

The information presented in this report comes from thefollowing sources: the proposal submitted by the ClevelandEducational Fund (CEF) to the Ford Foundation, the meeting ir NewYork City of project directors and coordinators in May 1985, aretrospective interview with 13.tiara Nelson of the Ford Foundation,documents provided by the CEF pt.dect staff, reports from the on-siteobserver, and two site visits dy the staff of the DocumentationProject.

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CLEVELAND COLLABORATIVE FOR MATHEMATICS EDUCATION (C2ME)

A. PURPOSE

The specific purposes of the Cleveland Collaborative forMathematics Education as presented by William Madar, SeniorVice-President of Standard Oil of Ohio (SOHIO), in an address toteachers who were visiting the company's Research Laboratories are"to improve the perceptions of the public schools, to i.rovideopportunities for teachers to become more cohesive as a group, toprol,ide teachers with better resources, and to enhance the quality ofmathematics education in the Cleveland Public Schools."

B. CONTEXT

The population of Cleveland is approximately 600,000. Clevelandhas a large black population, a large Appalachian population, and anethnic mix of Europeans who traditionally have been ratherBalkanized. The Cleveland Public School District servesapproximately 76,000 students; 35,000 students are in grades 7-12.The superintendent is Dr. Ronald A. Boyd. The mathematicscoordinator is William Bauer, who has served in that position forfive years.

Sixty-nine percent of the students in the district are black, 5percent are other minorities and 26 percent are white. Local studiesindicate a truancy rate of 20-30 percent per day, primarily in grades7-12. The dropout rate is close to 50 percent. Almost 75 percent ofthe students come from households which fall below the U.S.Department of Labor's poverty line. However, the movement of pupilsbetween schools within the district is considerably less than in manyurban cities.

The teaching population is comprised of approximately 4,500teachers, 229 of whom are secondary certified mathematics teachers.Average length of service in the system for all teachers is 15 years,but is slightly less than 19 years for mathematics teachers, based ona 72 percent response to a survey of the 88 mathematics teachers.Thirty-five percent of all the system's teachers are minorities,while 25 percent of the mathematics teachers for grades 10-12 areminorities. All three of the district's vocational high schoolmathematics teachers are members of a minority group.

The mathematics curriculum in the schools is the responsibilityof a district committee made up of teachers. Names are submitted bythe district to the teachers' union for membership to the committee,with final membership negotiated in the context of a harmoniousrelationship between union leaders and the curriculum section of thedistrict. (Financial limitations have in the past forced after hoursactivities to be confined to only a few buildings).

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Cleveland and its environs is served by two universities; nndtwo community colleges. Historically it has been a center ofindustry and is the headquarters of several corporations, includingStandard Oil of Ohio (SOHIO).

In 1973, a desegregation lawsuit was brought against thedistrict. The Office of School Monitoring and Community Relations wasestablished by the federal court to monitor the integration processbecause of resistance by the district to implement the desegregationactivities. This office is still functional.

There are effectively three administrative groupings in theschool system. There is the old guard and the court appointees, andsome other administrators who do not fall into either of those twocamps. Consequently, the district is not operating at the mostsatisfactory level of harmony. The School Board has also seenconsiderable conflict over the last year. The Board consists ofseven people. Dr. Boyd assumed the superintendency September 23,1985. He replaced Alfred D. Tutela, who served as interimsuperintendent after the death of Dr. Frederick D. Holliday.Superintendent Holliday committed suicide in January 26, 1984,leaving a note laying the blame for his frustration with theinability of the School Board to support him or to implement hispolicies. Holliday, as a black superintendent, was seen by sectionsof the black community as not being "black enough" and consequently,he had the support of only three of the seven School Board members.(Three of the four members voting consistently against him wereblack.) Efforts are being made to stabilize the district underDr. Boyd's superintendency.

Understandably, the morale in the district among both teacher°and administrators is low. This arises out of what is seen asirrational policies, teachers being moved from school to school, andlack of consultation, along with the other problems facing urbanschools. Furthermore, there has been the problem of remuneration.Pay in the Cleveland school district has been very low with teachersearning an average $19,000 - $20,000 per annum. New awards raisethese pay levels dramatically. For teachers with a master's degree,the pay scale changes from a range of $13,600-$27,721 to a range of$17,600-$36,000. Additionally, 7.5 percent of the employees of theDistrict are to be offered a buy-out for earlier retirement in thefirst and third years of the contract, with the 1985 school yearbeing the first year of the buy-out.

Overall, the problem of teacher isolation is seen as a criticalissue in Cleveland. Lack of communication and lack of relationsbetween teachers is exacerbated by what is seen as a low level ofesteem of teaching in the public forum.

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C. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COLLABORATIVE PROJECT

In July 1984, Barbara Nelson of the Ford Foundation contactedSondra Hardis of SOHIC's Corporate Contributions Department. The twohad prLviously met on Foundation business. In August 1984, a letterof intent was written (with the cooperation of William Mader, avice-president of SOH10) to receive planning grant money. It shouldbe noted that the initiative for ti-is project came from businesses.For many years there has been interest in the schools within thebusiness community of Clsvelari. Some initiatives are particularlysignificant. SOHIO, for ex, Le, distributes approximately $18million per year, with approximately $1 million directed toelementary/secondary education. The focus has been on mathematics,science, and the educational uses of computers. SOHIO has taken aninterest in the Cleveland Public Schools for many years and hassupported numerous projects.

One reason the letter of intent came from SOHIO was because ofperceived problem in Cleveland of distrust and disinterest believedto exist between universities and the Cleveland Public Schools. Inpreparing a letter of intent, it was important that there be no"taint" from either of those two groups. Thus, the letter came fromthe rather neutral SOHIO.

The funding agent during the planning stage was the ClevelandCouncil for Higher Education (CCHE), which consists of high levelbusiness executives and university leaders. William Hadar is amember of CCHE. He is also on the board of the just formed ClevelandEducation Fund (CEF) which became the funding agent for this project.The Cleveland Educational Fund is an independent community-basedorganization that was established in November, 1983. According toits bylaws, CEF operates soley to support the Cleveland PublicSchools. In its first year, it was funded by a grant from TheCleveland Foundation which covered the salary of the director and ahalftime secretary. CEF now operates with grants from the PublicEducation Fund, the Ford Foundation, and some small localfoundations. It also has corporate support.

The director of the CaME is Paula Anderson, who also serves asthe director of the Cleveland Education Fund. Christopher Butler washired as the project coordinator. He resigned on August 1 to accepta permanent position at Case Western Reserve University. HarrietJakob was hired as his replacement. She began work September 3.

A key person in the collaborative project is William Bauer, themathematics coordinator for the district. He was invited to theinitial planning meeting and was asked to bring with him a teacherfrom the district, preferably one who had strong union support. Thehead of the local teachers' union was pleased with the idea of theproject and supported the involvement of the teachers. There was,however, a conscious decision not to propose formal ties with the

ti 0

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union. Others invited to the planning sessions were people withinfluence who were prepared to show a commitment, had access toimportant persons or ideas, and also had time.

Institutions that were represented at that first meeting wereSOHIO; Case Western Reserve University (by the Assistant to thePresident); John Carroll University (by a professor from themathematics department and the chair of the education department);Cleveland State University (by the Dean of the College of Educationand the chair of the mathematics department), Cleveland ElectricIlluminating Company, and a teacher and two supervisors from theCleveland Public Schools. It was de::ieed that the Cleveland Councilfor Higher Education would act as the initial fiscal agent. WilliamMader had already identified the Cleveland Education Foundation asbeing suitable as being a continuing agent. (The Council for HigherEducation never saw itself as fulfilling that role beyond theplanning effort.) In order to get things organized, Barry McLaughlin(Alex Tobin's predecessor at PRIME in Philadelphia) was hired as aconsultant. SOHIO funded this consultant because the consultant hadto be paid before the planning grant was received from Ford. Therewas no mechanism for SOHIO to accept money from the Ford Foundation,so the money was returned to the Ford Foundation.

The Advisory Group worked well together. Attendance was veryhigh and participation was good. The success of getting a proposalwritten stemmed from the high level of participation of all personswho were involved at that early stage.

D. RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER LOCAL INITIATIVES

Alhough the Cleveland Education Fund was newly established in1983, C ME is only one of six activities that have already beenorganized by CEF for the improvement of mathematics instruction inthe Cleveland schools. The other activities include:

- a small grants program,

- a seventh grade summer orientation program,

- a parent involvement project,

- the SAT/ACT Review Course, and

- the Primary Problem Solving Project.

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E. PROJECT ACTIVITIES

Eight activities of C2ME should be mentioned. First, 18

teachers, 10 in April and 8 in June, attended week-long courses atLorain County Community College's High Technology Center. Thesecourses focused on mathematics in high technology industries. Allparticipants felt the courses were valuable.

Second, the Mathematics Teachers Resource Center was establishedat Cuyahoga Community College. Three teachers were hired toestablish and to run it. The importance of hiring teachers for thesepositions was highly stressed. There was considerable interest inthese positions and a number of applications were received. Theteachers who staff the Center, do so in addition to their regularschool commitments. One of the operators of the Teachers' Center isLes Moes. Les Moes grew up in Cleveland and actually teaches in theschool to which he went as a child. He has a very strong commitmentto the city and to the education system.

Third, a series of industry dinners and symposia have beenplanned. The first symposia was held at the SOHIO Research Center onMay 30. Forty-seven mathematics teachers attended. There was a tourof the facility, a dinner and a speaker. A second symposium was heldat the Eaton Corporation Manufacturing Services Center on November12, 1985.

Fourth, small grant awards to teachers of approximately $500have been initiated. There was $5,000 designated for secondary mathprojects. The regular application deadline was April 15, 1985. Thatdate appeared to be a problem. To accommodate the mathematicsteachers who participated in the program at the High TechnologyCenter, special grant cycle limited to secondary mathematicsproposals was offered. Grants were made to seven secondarymathematics teachers, totaling $3,146.25.

Fifth, in the summer, 11 teachers were placed in industryInternships. It tc expected that a further number of places will beavailable for the summer of 1986. This year, all who applied wereplaced. Each teacher Is now preparing a classroom project for theirstudents.

Sixth, Cleveland State University hired one summer intern. Inlieu of hiring teachers for the summer, John Carroll Universityoffered four scholarships to Cleveland mathematics teachers. Thesescholarships cover tuition for math courses taken in theirmathematics department. One teacher took courses there in thesummer.

Seventh, Bob Seitz (the project's on-site observer) is theeditor of a newsletter just established. The first issue of thenewsletter, Vol. 1, Issue 1, was printed in October 1985.

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Eighth, William Bower, Harriet Jakob and four teachers were toparticipate in the regional NCTM conference in Columbus during earlyDecember. Mr. Bauer gave a report on the collaborative's activitiesand Ms. Jakob made available materials about the collaborative.Despite Mr. Bauer's intense efforts, the district was unable torelease the four teachers to attend this professional meeting.

F. OBSERVATIONS

Five aspects of this collaborative project are of note. First,the one thing that stood out at the project director's meeting in NewYorl- was the emphasis that Cleveland placed on the importance ofpublic relations and news management. Upon launching the FordFoundation Project, there were three radio interviews, and severalnewspaper articles. This emphasis was deemed important in light ofCleveland's "educational inferiority complex." The public needs tobe aware of positive actions in the schools.

Second, the commitment and involvement of industry in thecollaborative is very strong. In particular, both the interships andthe dinner-symposia demonstrate this.

Third, on the other hand, there has been little universityinvolvement in the project. Cleveland State University had oneinternship over the summer. The other universities maintain thatthere is difficulty in finding money for work as well as money forteachers and internships.

Fourth, the relationship between the project's activities, whatteachers are learning, and how this can be reflected in the schooldistrict's program has not been addressed.

Finally, the involvement of teachers in both the collaborativeand the district's mathematics curriculum committees provides a reallinkage between the project's activities and mathematical andcurricular issues which may arise therein, and the administrativestructures governing the teaching of mathematics in the schools.

G. NEXT STEPS: SUMMARY AND FUTURE

The audience has changed. The project now describes itsaudience as all 195-221 teachers, rather than the 85 initiallyspecified in the grant application. This change has come aboutthrough the redefinition of the audience to cover all certifiedteachers of secondary mathematics, rather than only those teacherswho currently teach mathematics in the high schools. Given the pathby which teachers come to teach in high schools, a number of teacherswho are likely to move from middle school into high school positionsas they become available would be missed if only the 85 high school

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teachers were included. With a high 111:elihood of staff changeoverdue to both an aging teaching population and the buy-out provision inthe new contract, it was felt that there was an important long termgain to be made by broadening the scope of the project. Furthermore,it was felt that there was more enthusiasm for being involved amongthe junior high school teachers than among some of the older seniorhigh school teachers. The district also felt strongly aboutinvolving the junior high schools in the program. It was, therefore,a combination of long-term employment, political issues, and a desireto get what is perceived to be a more enthusiastic and supportivegroup of teachers that led to expanding the initial projectpopulation.

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SUMMARY REPORT:LOS ANGELES COLLABORATIVE: PRCFESSIONAL LINKS

WITH URBAN SCHOOLS (+PLUS+)

by

Thomas A. Romberg and Allan PitmanUrban Mathematics Collaborative Documentation Project

University of Wisconsin-Madison

October 1985

PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT

The intent of this report is to summarize the initial activitiesof the Los Angeles Urban Mathematics Collaborative Project. Itshould be understood that this report is intended to be factual andinterpretive. It is not the intent of the Documentation Project tojudge whether or not the organization of this collaborative or theactivities it has carried out meet the objectives of the FordFoundation.

The interpretations have been made in light of the intent of theFord Foundation to establish projects:

- to extend the sense of professionalism among teachersby building a support system that links them tocolleagues in the mathematical sciences, inside and outsidethe schools;

to provide teachers at all levels with colleagues uponwhom they can call for information concerning any aspect ofschool mathematics; and

to enable teachers to enlarge their view of mathematics,their sources of examples, and their repertoire of classroomskills in communicating mathematics.

The information presented in this report came from the followingsourcer- the proposal submitted by the Los Angeles EducationalPartnership (LAEP) to the Ford Foundation, the meetings of projectdirectors and coordinators in New York City in May 1985 and inCleveland in October 1985, a retrospective interview with BarbaraNelson of the Ford Foundation, documents and interview informationprovided by the project staff, reports from the on-site observer, andfour site visits by the staff of the Documentation Project.

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LOS ANGELES COLLABORATIVE PROJECT: PROFESSIONAL LINKSWITH URBAN SCHOOLS (+PLUS+)

A. PURPOSE

The proposal submitted in December 1984 outlined the objectivesof the Los Angeles Urban Mathematics Collaborative Project, whichcame to be titled Professional Links with Urban Schools (+PLUS+), asbeing to:

- provide for ongoing networking and collaboration amongteachers, mathematics departments, and the diversemathematics resources within the community;

broaden the scope of teachers' knowledge through associationwith mathematics-related industries and institutions;

- explore real-world relevance of mathematics for students inorder to increase their interest in mathematics andmathematics-related careers; and

- promote team building and leadership skills for teachers;

in order to promote increased professionalism among mathematicsteachers in urban high schools by creating a mathematics resourcenetwork through which teachers can identify and address theirprofessional needs.

B. CONTEXT

The population of the County of Los Angeles is approximately7,800,000. The Office of the County Superintendent of Schools serves94 county school districts, with 1,585 schools serving approximately1.5 million students. The +PLUS+ project works with teachers in twodistricts, the Los Angeles Unified School District and the El MonteUnion High School District. The superintendent of the Los Angelesschools is Dr. Harry Handler, who has served in that position for 5years. The Office of Secondary Instruction mathematics specialist isDonna Jorgensen, who is temporarily appointed, pending assignment ofan accredited specialist. Addit 3nally, the Senior High Schooldivision has its own mathematics advisor, as does each of the eightgeographic regions. The superintendent of the El Monte Union SchoolDistrict is Dr. James J. Sheridan, who has served as superintendentfor over 10 years, The district does not have a mathematicscoordinator, but is served by the County mathematics consultant, GeriClarke.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has an enrollment ofapproximately 570,000 students in all grade levels in 738 schools.The El Monte Urion High School District serves approximately 7,000

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students in five high schools (grades 9-12) and 16,500 adulteducation students. Students come to the El Monte district from fourelementary school districts.

Los Angeles County is one of the most heterogeneous areas in thecountry. The diversity in all the county's schools reflects thedifferences in culture, socio-economic status, and housingsegregation patterns. Since 1980 there has been a rapid increase inenrornent, particularly of immigrants from Latin America and Asiannations. A sample of nine county schools shows the total of minoritystudents enrolled ranging from 48 percent to 87 percent. In the LosAngeles Unified School District (LAUSD), 78 percent of the studentsare minorities. Approximately 19 percent of the students enrolled inLAUSD and 18.3 percent in a nine county district sample are receivingassistance under the Aid to Families of Dependent Children program.

There are 1,631 secondary mathematics teachers, grades 6-12, inthe Los Angeles district and 40 in the El Monte district. Because ofthe large population and number of schools, the +PLUS+ project hastargeted its efforts on the mathematics faculty in three highschools: Manual Arts and Wilson High School in the Los AngelesUnified School District, and Mountain View High School in the ElMonte Union High School District. Fifty-four high schools (18schools from LAUSD and 36 schools from nine other county districts)were invited to apply to be participants. Three LAUSD and two countyschools submitted applications, from which the three schools werechosen.

The mathematics curriculum in both school districts is based onthe State Model Curriculum Standards and the California MathematicsFramework.

In Los Angeles County, there are a large number of universities,colleges, junior colleges and trade schools. The University ofSouthern California, University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), andCalifornia State University-Los Angeles (CSULA), are activeparticipants in the +PLUS+ project. Through the CaliforniaMathematics Project, summer programs for high school mathematicsteachers are held at both UCLA and CSULA. At UCLA, two SummerInstitutes were offered: The High School Mathematics Project (HSMP),which is oriented to developing leadership skills, and the SecondaryUpdate in Mathematics (SUM), which deals with basic mathematicscontent for teachers coming from other subject disciplines. Stipendsand eight units of professional credit were offered. The SummerInstitute held at CSULA, the Minority Schools Mathematics Project,addressed issues of curriculum and methods. A stipend and six unitsof credit were offered to participants of this institute.

In addition to support from universities, eleven companies inthe county are participating in the collaborative: AtlanticRichfield Company, Bullock's, Ernst & Whinney, Fashion Institute of

3 i

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Design and Merchandising, General Telephone Company of California,Hughes Aircraft Company, Koret of California, Los Angeles PoliceDepartment, National Medical Enterprises, Inc., Galaxy Sound Studio,Northrop, and TRW. Individual corporations have been supportingeducation outside of the collaborative's activities as well. Forexample, Northrop awards $1000 to mathematics departments seen asbeing excellent and several corporations participate in anadopt-a-school program and in student intership programs. Teachersin Residence programs (summer employment) have also been organized byindividual companies.

C. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COLLABORATIVE PROJECT

The funding agent for the +PLUS+ project is the Los AngelesEducational Partnership (LAEP). This private nonprofit corporc:ionhas been operating with corporate support since January 1984, hasbeen associated with the Ford Foundation by funding through thePublic Education Fund. Contact was first made with regard to theUrban Mathematics Collaborative in August 1984, by the ExecutiveDirector of LAEP, Peggy Funkhouser.

The Ford Foundation made a planning grant of $2500 available inOctober 1984 for the preparation of a full proposal due December1984. Funding of the project started on February 1, 1985.

The initial commitment of support to the establishment of anUrban Mathematics Collaborative came from the LAEP board, threeuniversity campuses, the L.A. County Office of Education, the LosAngeles Unified School District, seven major corporations representedin the Los Angeles area, the California Community Foundation, and theMuseum of Science and Industry.

The advisory committee was large, with over 30 membersrepresenting the Unified School District, Office of CountySuperintendent of Schools, post-secondary institutions, communityorganizations, industry and the foundations. A characteristic of theuniversity representation is that of the eight participants, fivecame from education faculties with the others being from interlevelor interinstitutional program offices. The steering committee of tenrepresented a cross-section of four interest groups: one member wasfrom the county superintendent's office and three members each werefrom the school district, universities and industry. Toby Bornsteinwas hired as a consultant to prepare the proposal.

By the time of submission of the final proposal in December1984, Toby Bornstein had been identified as the coordinator for theproject. Toby Bornstein is a former elementary and junior highschool mathematics/science teacher. Her more recent work has been inthe development of mathematics curriculum materials, organizationalapplications in the computer industry, and in the organization of the

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1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Her appointment is full-time toLAEP, with a two-thirds commitment to +PLUS+. Dr. Warren Newman wasappointed as an evaluator-consultant for the project. Dr. Newman isthe superintendent of the South Pasadena School District. His rolehad been originally defined in the proposal as documentation,including profiles of all participants and reports of all activities,with the production of evaluation documents. In light of theestablishment of the Documentation Project by the Ford Foundat.Dr. Newman's role was redefined to be the designer of an evaluatictool that would assess how teachers' perceptions of themselves asprofessionals and their perceptions of other participants changed asa result of involvement in the project. It is intended that use ofsuch an instrument will sensitize teachers to this thrust of thisproject.

The approach taken in the Los Angeles proposal differed fromother collaboration proposals in two primary respects. First, itstarted with the emphasis on collaboration between teachers,university educators, and those in industry. Second, it elected towork with three schools intensively rather than spreading itsresources over a school district that was huge, both in populationand in area.

The mission as defined was to work with whole departments ofteachers from which leadership could emerge in order to bring changeswithin the school. The departments could ultimately be used todisseminate that capability to other schools in the district. It wasanticipated that this strategy might build cohesion withindepartments.

D. RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER LOCAL INITIATIVES

The Los Angeles Educational Partnership is the sponsor andfunding agent of numerous projects including a small grants programfor innovative classroom projects, and Math/Science TeacherFellowships for superior teachers. Both of these programs have aclear interrelation with the objectives of the Ford Foundation. Aconcern emerging from the Math/Science Fellowship was the inabilityof the program to sensitize fellows to the need to disseminate theirnew understandings. The +PLUS+ project addrese^s this need withstrategies to change teachers' perceptions towards collegiality andnetworking.

The Mathematics/Science Fellowship of LAEP offered acollaborative workshop to which the 1984 Math/Science Fellows wereinvited to bring a counterpart from the other discipline to exploreand se the benefits of collaboration. The MSF's organizationdeveloper, Peter Lewis, conducted the workshop. It included ananalysis of teachers' own styles of working in groups and theapplication of a collaboration mode3 to participants' schools. The

3 ,)

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+PLUS+ high schools were invited to send a representative and ascience teacher counterpart.

Teachers involved in +PLUS+ were also invited to attend the 1984Summer Institutes at UCLA and CSULA. One teacher took part in theUCLA Institute, and four in the California State Institute. Aluncheon at UCLA provided the opportunity for all teachers attendingeither program to meet each other as well as to meet otherparticipants in the +PLUS+ program. This function was hosted by DeanJuan Lara, Dean of the Office of Academic InterinstitutionalPrograms. The Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State ofCalifornia addressed the gathering and engaged in an informalquestion and answer session.

The +PLUS+ site visits to the universities served to make anumber of teachers aware of the wide range of programs available totheir students by many of the university departments. There is aninterest in how such programs might motivate students to improveschool performance.

The UC and CSU Mathematics Diagnostic Tests program provides amechanism for communication between the universities and teachers ofsenior mathematics classes. Information on test performance by topicis provided, and consultation is available regarding curricularcharge. A meeting in November 1984 included the educator members ofthe Collaborative's Steering Committee. This was one of a series ofmeetings to develop the Model Curriculum Standards for the State. InOctober 1985 the UCLA Office of Interinstitutional Programs conducteda mathematics mini-conference for K-12 teachers, dealing withstandards and with the state mathematics framework.

E. PROJECT ACTIVITIES

Before describing the activities of this collaborative, itshould be noted that +PLUS+ has employed three facilitators recruitedby Peter Lewis. The facilitators are professionally trained and werehired to assist in the planning processes and in team meetings.Teachers are not accustomed to having the resources of a facilitatoravailable and are not yet able to take full advantage of thisopportunity.

The first of the four activities of the collaborative was aKickoff Retreat, at which the participants came together for thefirst time. Three teams were formed, each consisting of universityand business associates and a high school mathematics department. Aplan for the summer was formulated by each team and site visitobjectives were stated. A facilitator was assigned to each team tokeep things on track, maintain a visual record, and provide initialexposure to and direct experience with the skills needed foreffective team planning.

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The second activity was a series of site visits. The visitsbegan with each math department hosting its team members at the highschool site. At each site visit the team facilitator, the universityand business associates that are part of the team, and the +PLUS+coordinator were present. The high school site visits failed toprovide sufficient information to enable the university and businessassociates to plan their own site visits. A meeting was thereforeheld to idzatify the needs common to all three mathematicsdepartments and to focus on those areas which could be addressedthrough the resources of the associates. This meeting was followedby ten industry/university site visits. In locking for theapplication of mathematics to the world of work, teams repeatedly sawand heard evidence of the use of the computer as a collector,processor, and distributor of information. This trend i mathematicsapplication requires students to acquire the ability to analyzeinformation for patterns and irregularities, to develop formulae andmathematical models, to make predictions and to forecast resultsbased on assumptions which minimize risk.

Organizationally, the teachers heard constant references to teamwork, team planning, and dependence and reliance on another group'sefforts. However, mo't teachers ended with a feeling of 'informationoverload," and they were left with the puzzling question of how tointegrate this information into their mathematics program. Also, theteachers were clearly impressed by the professional treatment theyreceived which to many was a stark cortrast to the treatment theyoften receive.

The third activity of the collaborative was a one-day retreat(Retreat II) and a follow-up workshop. This retreat, which wasplanned by team leaders and facilitators, brought the teams backtogether in September to share experiences, and to review andredefine plans. As an outcome of this retreat a team buildingworkshop is planned for December 7. This decision arose from theidentification of the challenges of and cbstael. to attaining teamgoals The workshop will focus on self-i ene, , conflictresolution, problem solving and communica, skills. Team buildinghad been anticipated to occur at the indiviaual team level ratherthan as a project-w4de activity. Ths workshop is an example of theproject's capacity to respond to needs as they arise. The workshopnow forms the basis for the planned team meeting foci during 1986.

Finally, each team is eligible to apply 1 planning grant of$230G. Peter Lewis will use the December wo, sh p to enable themembers of the +PLUS+ high school teams to ac £re skills nec,-4saryto execute their team plans.

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F. OBSERVATIONS

The networks involving teachers and their industry/universityassociates are developing. This process has been accompanied by ashaking out period during which there has been a recognition thatcorporate or institutional support does not always translate intoindividual commitment. This has been even more of a concern with theassociates from the co]'-ges. Alternative processes of identifyingindividuals within colleges and industry who are interested inparticipation are currently being explored. In particular, itappears that one person from an organization is not enough, just asan i3olated teacher in d school is not enough. On a positive note,two associates from corporations who initially had been identified bytheir employers, have maintained their involvement in thecollaborative after changing corporations.

The building of teams generally has been a problem of mindset,with individual teachers tending to see their activities as nothaving a bearing on the group as a whole. Thus, for example, theinitiative of a teacher in organizing 11 volunteers at USC toparticipate in eltivities with his school was seen by him as anindividual act. Generally, the project has had strong businesssupport from the start, as well as that of the county and schooldistrict. While the university support has been there, the nature ofjob specifications within universities and the lack of career rewardfor involvement appear to provide a barrier to achieving moreconsistent university faculty support. College associates who showeda personal involvement appear to be discouraged by lack ofadministrative support.

The site visits in the Los Angeles collaborative are interestingin that they involved both visits by teachers to industry anduniversities, and visits by business and university associates toschools. In the building of a collegial relationship between theteachers and the associates, this strategy fosters the belief thateach group has something to learn about the reality of the others'work life. The planning of these visits was the responsibility orthe hosts, and initial visits suggested that teachers were not useto the degree of planning necessary to meximize their value.

With regard to the site visits to university campuses andbusinesses, it was noted that teachers indicated that their needswere not satisfied. It appears that they were expecting materials tobe given to them in readily usable form for the classroom.

G. NEXT STEPS

Networking beyond the +PLUS+ project will be initiated. TheComputers in Schools Project of the National Commission on Industrial

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Innovation (NCII) and LAEP intend to collaborate in the establishmentof a computer information network to link six teacher projects in theLos Angeles area. The +US+ group is one of these, and willidentify a pair of teachers to act as key persons in this network.The NCII will provide terminals and modems for 1986. Within +PLUS+,networking will be expedited by a series of meetings of team leadersat the LAEP offices.

Site visits will continue. In addition to the team visits toschools, colleges, and industry, a joint visit of all teams isplanned to Galaxy Sound Studios in January. A similar visit to LAPDScience Laboratory is to be scheduled for team representatives.

Each team is to present its development plan by January 15, andgrants will he awarded by February 15. Following the decisions fromRetreat II, each team's four meetings will focus in part on theproblems and challenges of working as a team. Conflict resolution,problem solving, and communication skills directed toward developingcooperation with groups and from administrators are to be developedby the facilitators. Furthermore, each associate's organization willfund and host one of these meetings as a dinner meeting for membersof the associate's +PLUS+ team.

A serial ,f mini roundtables will provide task forces ofteachers who attended summer site visits and who wish to furtherdevelop the available resources the opportunity to furtheraccommodate their team plans.

The visits of the project coordinator to each school team willbe on a regular monthly schedule. The foci wi21 be on informingschool administrators, building team profiles, end facilitating boththe flow of information and the implementation of the initiatives ofthe project.

Teacher members of +PLUS+ are attending the November 1985meeting of the California Mathematics Council and may givepresentations at the 1986 convention.

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SUMMARY REPORTPHILADELPHIA URBAN MATHEMATICS COLLABORATIVE

by

Thomas A. Romberg & Allan PitmanUrban Mathematics Collaborative Documentation Project

University of Wisconsin-Madison

December 1985

PURPOSE OF ThIS REPORT

The intent of this report is to summarize the initial activitiesof the Philadelphia Urban Mathematics Collaborative. The report isintended to be factual and interpretive. It is not the purpose ofthe Documentation Project to judge whether or not the orgcnization ofthis collaborative or the activities it has carried out meet theobjectives of the Ford Foundation.

The interpretati-,us have been made in light of the intent of theFord Foundation to eablish projects which were:

- to extend the .;ens. of professionalism among teachers bybuilding a support Gystem that links them to colleagues inthe mat%ematical inside and outside the schools;

- to provide teachers at all levels with colleagues upon whomthey can call for information concerning any aspect of schoolmathenlatics; rind

- to enable teachers to enlarge their view of mathematics,their sources of examples, and their repertoire of classroomskills in communicating mathematics.

The information presented in this report came from the followingsources: the rroptsal submitted by The Franklin Institute to theFord Foundation, the meeting in New York City of project directorsand coordinators in May 1985, a retrospective interview with BarbaraNelson of the Ford Foundation,

documents provided by The FranklinInstitute staff, reports from the on-site observer, and three sitevisits by the staff of the 'Thcumentation Project.

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PHILADELPHIA URBAN MATHEMATICS COLLABORATIVE

A. PURPOSE

As indicated in the proposal, the collaborative project is beingdesigned "to improve teachers' effectiveness in the classroom andthus improve the quality of mathematics education in this urbansetting." Attributes of activities were to be:

- the promotion of collegiality among school teachers, andbetween them and college mathematics teachers andpracticing mathematicians;

- the upgrading of teaching skills;

- the sharing of information;

- the promotion of a more professional feeling on thepart of teachers; and

- the establishment of leadersLip nuclei in schoolmathematics departments.

The Philadelphia Urban Mathematics Collaborative aims to facilitatecollaboration between projects directed toward mathematics teaching,and to move teachers to a more collegial involvement in the operationof these projects. Facilitation will include implementation ofexisting activities and the establishment of new interactions.

B. CONTEXT

Philadelphia has a population of approximately 1,700,000. Theschool district of Philadelphia serves 198,000 children. Thesuperintendent of schools is Dr. Constance Clayton, who has served inthat position for three years. The mathematics coordinator is DavidWilliams who is in his first year. Alex Tobin had been themathematics coordinator for 15 years before his retirement. DavidWilliams was his assistant for the past four years.

Seventy-three percent of students in Philadelphia schools arefrom racial minority groups. Many of the students come from singleparent and/or unemployed families. In the western, southern, andcentral sections of the city, minority enrollments range from 70-90percent, while in the northeast section, the minority enrollment is33 percent.

There are 9,069 teachers in the school district of whom 892 aremathematics teachers. Approximately 360 are high school mathematicsteachers. Thirty-nine percent of the teachers are from racialminorities and 64 percent are women. While all public high school

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mathematics teachers will be included in the overall scheme, thecollaborative programs will be targeted to 12 high schools with aspecial emphasis on Chapter One schools.

The school district has a mandated mathematics curriculum,developed by a committee of administrators and teachers. Thecurriculum is sequenced and paced so that all students areapproximately at the same point in the sequence at the same time.The program is tied to the administration of standard district-widetests.

In Philadelphia, there are 25 institutions of higher learningincluding three involved in this project: Temple University, DrexelUniversity, and the Community College of Philadelphia.

Also, as a major industrial city, Philadelphia is a home formany major industries including: ARA Services, Bell Atlantic, CIGNACorporation, Crown Cork and Seal, Penn Mutual Life, PennwaltCorporation, Rohm and Haas, Scott Paper Company, Smith Kline BeckmanCorporation, and Westmoreland Coal.

C. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COLLABORATIVE PROJECT

The original contact in Philadelphia for the Ford Foundation in1984 was Alex Tobin, who was then the mathematics supervisor for thePhiladelphia schools. It was on his suggestion that the FranklinInstitute, one of the foremost science museums in the country, wasapproached to sponsor the project. Wayne Ransom, as Director ofEducation for that institution, became the executive officer for thecollaborative.

Upon receipt of a planning grant of $2500 from the FordFoundation in September 1984, a proposal was written. The proposalwas written by Wayne Ransom and a member of his staff, Trina Vaux.This was done, however, with input from several subcommittees thathad been organized to focus on various parts of the Ford Foundationguidelines. Three committees were formed: school professionalactivities, in-school components, and network components. Eachcommittee consisted of five to seven people. In addition, anadministrative coordinating committee was formed consisting of JoelBloom, Richard DeLone, Wayne Ransom, and Alex Tobin. Trina Vauxattended and took notes at all of the committees meetings. Sheprovided the continuity and direct input from the committees to thefinal drafting of the proposal.

D. RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER LOCAL INITIATIVES

There are five very important organizations in Philadelphiawhose activities have a direct bearing on the support of mathematics

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teachers in Philadelphia and on the activities of this project. Theyare the Franklin Institute, the funding agency; the Committee toSupport Philadelphia Public Schools, CSPPS; the PhiladelphiaRenaissance in Science and Mathematics Education, PRISM; thePhiladelphia Regional Introduction for Minorities and Education,PRIME; and the Association of Teachers of Mathematics of Philadelphiaand Vicinity, ATMOPAV.

The Franklin Institute has a 150-year history of promotingscience and technology. As the region's only science and technologycenter, the Institute has valuable expertise to apply to theimprovement of science and mathematics education. It has pioneeredthe area of experimental education, including hands-on exhibits,resource materials and kits, and has done seminal work in evaluatingthe effectiveness of exhibits and other informal teaching media. TheFranklin Institute has a strong tradition of cooperativerelationships with other organizations in the private and publicsectors and has been deeply involved in new initiatives inmathematics and science teacher training.

The Committee to Support Philadelphia Public Schools, CSPPS, wasstarted over two years ago. The CSPPS is an organization comprisedof high level corporate, higher education, and foundation executives.It has established a humanities task force, and more recently, one inmathematics and science: the Philadelphia Renaissance in Science andMathematics (PRISM). The CSPPS has approximately $2.5 million forsupport of teaching programs. Richard DeLone is the seniorconsultant to CSPPS and Joel Bloom, Alex Tobin, and Wayne Ransom aremembers of this task force. This task force has sponsored both amini-grants program and teacher internships in industry through thePhiladelphia Teachers in Industry Program (PTIP).

PRIME, the Philadelphia Regional Introduction for Minorities andEducation, was established in 1972 at the initiative of GeneralElectric. That company was concerned with both affirmative action andits difficulty in hiring minorities who were trained in engineering.Consequently, it convened a group to form the organization with a$50,000 grant. That organization has been active in supportingimprovements in school mathematics and has spread its interest fromengineering to other areas such as pharmacology and actuarial work.

PRIME consists of thirty-two businesses, seven colleges, nineenvironmental organizations and two school districts, Philadelphiaand Camden. It has 2,000 children in its programs, with 450 insummer programs. There are several barriers to improving mathematicseducation in urban areas: the high absentee and dropout rate fromthe schools, students' reluctance to take higher level mathematics,and a reluctance by teachers to teach higher level mathematics.Members of PRIME felt that there was a feeling cf pride in teaching,but that the feeling of pride was not institutionalized. They hadtwo initial goals. The first was to get commitments from the

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district regarding staff development for higher levels ofmathematics. Second, they wanted to combine informal programsthrough the Franklin Institute and other agencies with formalprograms and professional societies in order to improve what they sawas poor communications between the colleges and schools. It was feltthat PRIME would be able to act as a catalyst because of itsindependence.

The Association of Teachers of Mathematics of Philadelphia andVicinity, ATMOPAV, has an active membership of approximately 450school and college mathematics teachers. It provides regularprograms and a newsletter.

The presence of these five organizations is important becausethis collaborative project is being used to extend the manyactivities which are already being offered to the mathematicsteachers in Philadelphia. Thus, it becomes very difficult toascertain where the Ford initiative ends and the others' initiativestake over.

At the Planning Committee meeting of October 3, 1984, Ransom andTobin outlined the purposes for the Ford Urban MathematicsCollaborative Project and argued for the necessity of building onwhat has already been in place. Their aim was to fit existingprograms and proposals together and establish one loose but unifiedcollaborative structure. The way in which they saw the interlockingrelationship at work is exemplified by the 1985 Summer Instituteactivity held at Drexel University. Originally, Westinghouse hadbeen approached to fund this activity but refused. It has now becomea part of the Ford furded initiative in Philadelphia.

E. PROJECT ACTIVITIES

Six activities of this collaborative project should bementioned. First, the Summer Institute which was an intensive fourweek summer mathematics program was held at Drexel University. TheInstitute was jointly sponsored by the Philadelphia Urban MathematicsCollaborative, Philadelphia Renaissance in Science and Mathematics(PRISM), the School District of Philadelphia, Philadelphia RegionalIntroduction for Minorities and Engineering (PRIME), and DrexelUniversity. The program was modeled after the Phillips Andoverprogram. Eighteen mathematics teachers from 11 senior high schoolsparticipated. Tuition was free, but teachers paid travelingexpenses. Nine quarter-hours of Drexel University credits weregranted for participating in the Institute and all materials wereprovided. Teachers were not paid an honorarium for attending for tworeasons: first, it would be too expensive; and second, as theprogram did not involve the teachers being absent from work, it wasconsidered appropriate not to pay them as the teachers were gainingprofessionally and getting university credit.

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The second activity involved the collaborative paying forteachers' memberships in ATMOPAV. The idea behind the collaborativeis to build on what already exists so that the present structuresbecome stronger and more participative. As a result of thecollaboratives' involvement, all the mathematics teachers in thePhiladelphia School District have been made members of ATMOPAV. Thisadditional support should result in an increase in the number ofpublications of ATMOPAV and a strengthening of its programs. Thefirst issue of the ATMOPAV Newsletter for this school year waspublished in September 1985. The editor of the association'snewsletter is Sue Stetzer, the on-site observer for thiscollaborative.

A third initiative, which is related to the PRISM organization,was the awarding of mini-grants to mathematics teachers. Mini-grantsare awards made to support innovative or experimental projectsdesigned to enrich classroom experiences. In the past, not as manyapplications as desired have been submitted, with very few inmathematics. The perceived reason for this is that mathematicians donot see themselves as competent in writing submissions.Consequently, funds were used to advertise and to help teachers writeproposals. Three high school mat6.matics teachers from differentschools were awarded mini-grants for the 1985-86 school year.

A fourth activity involved the recruitment of mathematics.'_eachers as Teacher-Fellows for 1985 in the Philadelphia Teachers inIndustry Program. This PRISM program offers opportunity forprofessional growth and development through four elements.

1) an 8-10 week summer placement for sponsored researchand field study industry,

2) university supported academic study to assist theTeacher-Fellow to translate the summer experience intoclassroom instructional materials,

3) four mini-conferences to introduce Teacher-Fellows todevelopments in technology and to provide feedback ontheir work, and

4) dissemination of information and ideas.

The Teacher-Fellows receive a stipend of $2700 for the first year,academic credit, and a significant hands-on out-of-school experience.Three mathematics teachers have received Fellowships.

The fifth activity involves the heads of the high schoolmathematics departments. The first meeting of the department headswas held on September 19, 1985. The role of the collaborative, thesummer institute, and the plan to provide ATMOPAV memberships foreach high school mathematics teacher were discussed. Other items of

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interest, including future speakers and trips for teachers, were alsodiscussed.

The sixth activity was a retreat on October 15 for allmathematics department heads and principals. This was a leadershipinstitute, during which attendees received training in management andleadership skills.

F. OBSERVATIONS

Three aspects of this collaborative project are of note. First,there was considerable delay in getting the activities started.Several reasons are apparent. At the time of funding, the projectdirector, Wayne Ransom, was promoted to Director of Education for theFranklin Institute. Consequently, he had less time to spend on thecollaborative. A second reason for the delay was the difficulty inhiring a project coordinator. It was seen as imperative that thecoordinator be viewed as a teacher, yet with the salary for theproject coordinator set at only $24,000 per annum, the project wasunable to compete with the salaries being paid to teachers in theschool district. Prior to the successful applicant, applicants wereeither not interested at the salary tha, was being offered, or wereunacceptable as lacking the potential respect of teachers in thearea. After much advertising and several interviews with candidates,the position was filled by Herb Isakoff. He is fifty-five years oldand is taking early retirement. Most recently he was AssistantDirector of Personnel for the Philadelphia School District.Previously, he was a mathematics teacher at South Philadelphia HighSchool for nine years. He started this job on July 1, 1985.

The second area of note in regard to this collaborative projectis that the primary support structure for the collaborativeoriginates from the Philadelphia School District. Although therehave been attempts to forge alliances with businesses anduniversities, it is the school district that has defined the problemsto be addressed as well as the subsequent activities. A usefulinsight into the support structure is obtained by locking at themembership and affiliations of the Search Committee for the positionof project coordinator for the project. The Search Committeeconsisted of Alex Tobin; Dave Williams (Tobin-s replacement as thedirector of mathematics education for the district); CorrineCaldwell, the chair of mathematics and science at the CommunityCollege of Philadelphia, and Wayne Ransom. Industry and majorcollaborating universities were not involved.

Another example of the dominant role taken by the schooldistrict involves the instructors of the courses offered at DrexelUniversity in the Summer Institute. Although the courses were housedat Drexel and the teachers were getting university credit, theinstructors were not Drexel faculty. In fact, they were teachers

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from the Philadelphia schools. In all, theta is little evidence ofinput into the planning or conducting of the activities from eitheruniversity faculty or industry tepresentatives.

The third area of note is that as a result of the planningeffort, the nature of the Summer Institute changed from its initialtarget population and purpose. It was not for department heads, butfor teachers. It was designed to enable some teachers to teachadvanced mathematics classes. It was attended by 18 teachers from 12senior high schools. Three areas of mathematical curricular interestwere presented: special topics in computers, introduction toanalysis, and special topics in mathematics. It was understood theseteachers were to be given the opportunity to subsequently teachadvanced classes. There is no question that those teachers whoparticipated benefited from the program.

The path which the collaborative has chosen is an interestingone in that it is choosing to facilitate collaboration in two quitedistinct ways: on the one hand, between existing and new projects inthe Philadelphia area directed towards mathematics teachers, and onthe other, toward involving teachers more collaboratively in thestructure and operation of these programs. One point identified bythe coordinator (in the other collaboratives, the title would bedirector) is that there is a need to establish a unique identity forthe collaborative. Ways in which this might be done are beingconsidered as part of the 1986 strategy.

G. NEXT STEPS

Several plans for the second year of the collaborative have beenmade. They include:

1 Contacting department heads at the 12 Chapter I high schoolsand surveying tbl mathematics teacher in order to plan futureactivities at those schools expressing interest. For example: aCAD/CAM workshop was requested teachers in two schools.

2. Developing "Mathematics Colloquia" modeled after thePhiladelphia Alliance for The Humanities "PATHS" Colloquia and"Academic Alliances." A colloquia on "The History of Mathematics" isbeing planned in conjunction with Dr. Robert McGee of CabriniCollege.

3. Further developing the affiliation with teachers assigned tothe High School Academies: Business, Electrical, Auto and HealthOccupations. Meetings are arranged for November 12 and 13, 1985.

4. Cooperating with Lois Berson of Association of Teachers ofMathematics of Philadelphia Area and Vicinity (ATMOPAV) in theplanning of AMROPAV's Winter 1986 meeting, which will be held on

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February 22, 1986. This meeting will involve workshops, sectionmeetings and a guest speaker.

5. Assisting, at the request of the School District Curriculumoffice, in forming a committee of mathematics teachers to rethink andrLdrite the rationale and course of study for the "Mathematics inApplication" course necessitated by new state graduationrequirements. This committee will also identify applicable textualmaterials and software support.

6. Dev-loping sponsors from the business/industrial community.

7. Arranging for the 1986 Summer Urban Teachers Institute, whichwill be similar to the 1985 Summer Institute. The Institute willprobably be held at Drexel University.

8. Publicizing the activities of the collaborative in the PRISMand ATMOPAV newsletters.

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SUMMARY REPORT:SAN FRANCISCO URBAN MATHEMATICS COLLABORATIVE

by

Thomas A. Romberg and Allard PitmanUrban Mathematics Collaborative Documentation Project

University of Wisconsin-Madison

December 1985

PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT

The intent of this report is to summarize the initial activitiesof the San Francisco Urban Mathematics Collaborative. The report isintended to be factual and interpretive. It is not the purpose ofthe Documentation Project to judge whether or not the organization ofthis collaborative or the activities it has carried out meet theobjectives of the Ford Foundation.

The interpretations have been made in light of the intent of theFord Foundation to establish projects:

- to extend the sense of professionalism among teachersby building a support system that links them to colleagues inthe mathematical sciences, inside and outside the schools;

- to provide teachers at all levels with colleagues uponwhom they can call for information concerning any aspectof school mathematics; and

- to enable teachers to enlarge their view of mathematics,their sources of examples, and their repertoire ofclassroom skills in communicating mathematics.

The information presented in this report comes from thefollowing sources: the proposal submitted by the San FranciscoCollaborative to the Ford Foundation through efforts ofrepresentatives from the San Francisco Unified School District, theSan Francisco Education Fund, the Exploratorium, the San FranciscoConsortium for Higher Education, and other mathematics educators; themeeting in New York City of project directors and coordinators in May1985; a retrospective interview with Barbara Nelson of the FordFoundation; documents provided by the San Francisco Education Fundstaff; reports from the on-site observer, and three rite visits bythe staff of the Documentation Project.

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SAN FRANCISCO URBAN MATHEMATICS COLLABORATIVE

A. PURPOSE

The purpose of this collaborative, as stated in the December1984 proposal to the Ford Foundation, is to show teachers "howmathematics is embedded in the world around us while being sensitiveto the needs and interests of the teachers involved in the program."

Underlying this general purpose, the aim is both to make theteaching of mathematics more attractive and to encourage presentteachers to remain in the field through:

1. professional development of the teacher as amathematician and educational teacher;

2. collegiality and network building with othermathematics professionals, and;

3. opportunities for the teacher to infuse theembeddedness of mathematics in the real world intohis/her instruction.

B. CONTEXT

San Francisco, which comprises all of San Francisco County, hasa population of approximately 700,000. The area is served by the SanFrancisco Unified School District. The interim superintendent ofschools is Carlos Cornejo who has been selected by the Board ofEducation to serve for a period of one year, while a national searchfor a superintendent is conducted. The mathematics coordina'or isTanis Madfes.

The district has 114 schools with approximately 64,000 studentsenrolled in grades K through 12, of wilich 83.4 percent areminorities. English is the second lm-guage for 47.6 percent of thestudents; 29.6 percent are either Limited English Proficient (LEP) orNon-English Proficient (NEP). In more than one-third of the schools,over 20 percent of the students receive Aid to Families of DependentChildren (AFDC). Of all the students, 61.8 percent are classified asEducationally Disadvantaged Youth (EDY). Therefore, more thanone-third of the students in the San Francisco Unified SchoolDistrict are in at least one of the categories: LEP, NEP, AFDC, orEDY. This has impacted on the schools in a variety of ways.

One hundred seventy-two teachers are responsible for mathematicsinstruction at the high school level; 105 (61%) of these teachershave either a college minor or major or advanced degree in thesubject. The group of 105 mathematics-relatt teachers comprises the

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target audience for this collaborative project. Thirty-eight percentof these individuals are minorities; 45 percent are over 50 yearsold. While about 80 percent of the students take two or more yearsof mathematics, recent legislation mandates that ail students taketwo years of mathematics for graduation.

Large classes !some over 40), teacher shortages, "retrainingprograms" for teachers coming from other disciplines to mathematics,and classes composed of students with special needs have increasedthe bt_den on the group of professional mathematics teachers who havebeen given little recent opportunity for involvement in mathematicsor exposure to new research and developments.

Most teachers of mathematics in the San Francisco Unified SchoolDistrict have been teaching for over 20 years. They, there-ore, needto be brought up to date on current trends in and uses ofmathematics. This need is exacerbated by the district's design of anew curriculum which requires significant shifts in content andpedagogy. The new curriculum is consistent with the newly adoptedState F-amework for Mathematics.

San Francisco is the home for a number of major universities.Ti-tse institutions are linked in a high-level organization, the SanFrancisco Consortium for Higher Education, which has, for almost 20years, brought the universities and colleges of the city together toassist the community in seeking solutions to its urban problems.This consortium is directly involved in the collaborative project.

As a major industrial city, San Francisco is the site of manyprominent industries including McNesson Corporation, Levi Strauss,Chevron U.S.A., Wells Fargo Bank, Crocker Bank, and Bank of America.In San Francisco there is a history of corporate funding of publicschool activities. The Corporate Action Committee, for example, hasbeen operating for three years.

San Francisco is also the home of the Exploratorium, a w;rldreknown science museum which contains over 500 participatoryexhibits. Since 1975, the Exploratorium has offered opportunitiesfor "hands on" learning in the sciences through organized w,_kshopsas well as through casual visits by individuals. An NSF projccl isalready operating within the museum to improve the instruction c.

science at middle and high schools.

C. ESTABLISHMENT OF TH1 'LLABORATIVE PROJECT

The iniiial apptoach by the Ford Foundation was to D7. FrankOppenheimer as a result of his role its organizing the Exploratoriumfor active learning and problem solving. Underlying theExploratorium's activities is the assumption that its users learn bythinking through problems and relating intuitions to experience. He

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strongly supported starting a Mathematics Collaborative, but feltthat the Exploratorium was not the most appropriate funding agency.The Exploratorium staff felt they could better actively support andparticipate in such a project, rather than administer it. The museumdirected the Ford Foundation to the San Francisco Education Fund andthe SFEF became the funding agent.

Established in 1979, the San Francisco Education Fund is acommunity organization dedicated to improving the quality ofeducation in the city's public schools. The SFEF raises funds forprioritized programs for which no federal or state funding isavailable, and provides a channel for corporate funding of publicschool activities. It also collaborates with other organizations toincrease community support for the schools and provides a bridgebetween the public schools and the ecicational, cultural, scientific,and business resources in the community.

In 1984, a planning grant was made to SFEF to prepare a proposalto establish an Urban Mathematics Collaborative. This proposal wasprepared by representatives of the San Francisco Urified SchoolDistrict, the San Francisco Education Fund, and the San FranciscoConsortium for Higher Education. There was no direct representationfrom business on the stezring committee.

The proposal was submitted in December 1984 and funded inFebruary 1985. A project director was identified: TheresaHernandez-Heinz, head of the mathematics department of Mission HighSchool and vice president of the San Francisco Mathematics TeachersAssociation. Ms. Hernandez-Heinz's appointment is part-time, withorganizational duties being shared with Gladys Thacher, executivedirector of the SFEF.

D. RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER LOCAL INITIATIVES

It is the intention of the collaborative to utilize and expand anumber of existing initiatives. Th narticular, the work of theExploratorium in offering Summer IIAitutes in the sciences providedan opportunity to develop similar activities for mathematicsteachers. This, in f ct, constituted the firFt major activity of thecollaborative.

E. PROJECT ACTIVITIES

The intent of the collaborative was to organize activities whichtargeted the experienced high school mathematics teachers in thewhole district. To date, there have been four primary activities: a

st-rt-up reception, a Summer Institute for 23 teachers at theExploratorium with a series of follow-up seminars, an initial dinnerlecture, and a seminar and reception held at the Wells Fargo Bank.

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Seventy-five high school mathematics teachers attended thekick-off reception on March 9, 1985. The reception provided theteachers an opportunity to gather in a social setting to be honoredfor their dedication and positive contribution to education, tosocialize with their colleagues, and to become informed about the SanFrancisco UrLan Mathematics Collaborative Project. Specificinformation and application forms concerning the Teacher Institutewere presented as well as an opportunity for questions regarding theInstitute.

Twenty-five mathematics teachers were sslected from 31applicants to participate in the Teacher Institute at theExploratcrium. Twenty-three teachers attended the frur-week summerworkshop. The lessons were designed to further teachers'understanding of some important concepts of physics through thelanguage of mathematics, with about 50 percent of the time devoted toconcepts in each field. The teachers found the sessions to be verystimulating and enlightening. All were positive in their evaluationof the workshop. Three follow-up sessions, two dealing with concreteexamples related to trigonometry and one on empirical data and pc:,,erfunctions, have been held. A discussion group on exhibits for theExploratorium on mathematics was planned. The Saturday morningfollow-up sessions have proven to be very successful, and havemaintained a high attendance rate. These sessions are considered anintegral part of the summer seminar program.

A Dinner Lecture Series designed to draw upon the rich communityresources of San Francisco is planned for the 1985-86 academic year.Speakers in the series will include two Nobel laureates and twomathematicians in industry. The first of the four meetings in theseries was held in October with Dr. Robert Langridge speaking on thetopic "Molecular Graphics: Computer Assisted Insight and Reasoningin Three Dimensions." Teachers who had participated in the SummerInstitute were encouraged to bring another teacher with them to thefirst dinner meeting: 40 attended. A follow-up workshop on computerusage was attended by nine teachers. Minigrants were available toworkshop participants, but none were used. The problem seemed to bethat teachers brought too many diverse expectations to the workshop.The issue suggests the need to better communicate the intent of theFellowship, which is to move beyond questions of "what software?" toanalysis of types of teaching.

Approximately 40 teachers participated in a seminar at the WellsFargo Bank where they were addressed by four management personnel,who stressed the importance of basic mathematics. A receptionfollowed the presentation.

0r /

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F. OBSERVATIONS

The Summer Institute at the Exploratorium was very successful.Teachers were stimulated by the conceptual bridges that linkedmathematics with the physical world. Through the follow-up program,this enthusiasm has the potential of being carried back to thoseteachers' classrooms. A concern identified by the director of thecollaborative project is that this core group of teachers needs to beconvinced that they con be educational leaders. They may need to beprovided with some foi of management training. Otherwise, therecould be a possible barrier to the networking of ideas withinschools. In particular, mathematics department heads could benefitfrom leadership training to better effect curriculum change inschools.

Organizationally, it has been necessary to share theresponsibility for running the collaborative between the SFEFExecutive Director and the collaborative's part-time director. Thisinitially created some problems while the division of labor wassorted out.

The participation of Exploratorium staff and of representativesof colleges has been at a high level in the planning and running ofthe collaborative. There has, however, been some difficulty inactively involving mathematicians from industry. This problemreflects the varying degree of involvement of the various sectors insupport of the collaborative. There is now, however, an indicationthat direct approaches to individuals and the enlistment of activesupport of the Chamber of Commerce are generating more industrialsupport.

G. NEXT STEPS

A key concern of the collaborative is to consider ways ofdeveloping its infrastructure. In particular, to find ways forteachers to identify needs beyond those which are day-o-day, and todevelop ,within schools the capacity to take advantage of outsideresotrces. A teacher center specifically for mathematics (andpossibly science) is likely to be established. It will be a Centerfor Professional Exchange, with access to out ide resource people, aswell as to school personael. Also, attention will be focused on thedevelopment ..)f leadership skills in a core of matrematics teachers.

With regard co governance, a five-member Teacher AdvisoryCommittee has been identified to facilitate feedback and provideinformation from the teachers' viewpoints directly to the directorand coordinator of the collaborative. This is part of theformalization of the governing structure of the collaborative.

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SUMMARY REPORT:TWIN CITIES URBAN MATHEMATICS COLLABORATIVE

by

Thomas A. Romberg and Allan PitmanUrban Mathematics Collaborative Documentation Project

University of Wisconsin-Madison

December 1935

PURPOSE OF THE REPORT

The intent of this report is to summarize the initial activitiesof the Twin Cities Urban Mathematics Collaborative. The report isintended to be factual and interpretive. It is not the purpose ofthe Documentation Project to judge whether or not the organization ofthis collaborative or the activities it has carried out meet theobjectives of the Ford Foundation.

The interpretations have been made in light of the intent of theFord Foundation to establish pr,jects:

- to extend the sense of professionalism among teachers bybuilding a support system that links them to colleagues inthe mathematical sciences, inside and outside the schools;

- to provide teachers at all leve.s with colleagues upon whomthey can call for information concerning any aspect of schoolmathematics; and

- to enable teachers to etilarge their view of mathematics,their sources of examples, and their repertoire of classroomskills in communicating mathematics.

The information presented in this re,,ort came from the followingsources: the proposal submitted by the School of Mathematics at theUniversity of Minnesota to the Ford Foundation, the meeting in NewYork City of project directors and coordinators in May 1985, aretrospective Interview with Barbara Nelson of the Ford Foundation,documents provided by project staff at the University of MinnesotaSchool of Mathematics, reports from the on-site observer, and twosite visits by the staff of the Documentation Project.

5:1

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TWIN CITIES URBAN MATHEMATICS COLLABORATIVE

A. PURPOSE

The purpose of the collaborative as stated in its proposal is"to extend the sense of professionalism among secondary schoolmathematics teachers, provide for their future intellectualstimulation and renewal, and establish collegial and professionalrelationships among teachers and the wider mathematical community ofthe Twin Cities."

B. CONTEXT

The population of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area is approximately650,000. Two urban public schools districts serve Minneapolis andSt. Paul. The superintendent of schools in Minneapolis is RichardGreen, who has served in this position for five years. Themathematics coordinator is Ross Taylor. David Bennett has been thesuperintendent in St. Paul for one year. Charles Lund is themathematics coordinator.

Minneapolis has 37,500 students, and St. Paul, 30,650 studentsin grades K-12. In the Minneapolis district, approximately 40percent of the children live with a single parent. BetweenMinneapolis and St. Paul, the districts serve a racial mix ofchildren of whom two-thirds are white, one fifth black, over sevenpercent Asian, and about three percent Hispanic. Of notable presenceis the Native American population which accounts for over fourpercent of the children.

The teacher population in both districts is mature and highlyqualified. Over 50 percent of St. Paul teachers have at least 12yerrs experience and hold the equivalent of a master's degree orhigher. In Minneapolis, 70 percent have taught in the district for11 years or mere; 73 percent of junior high teachers and 89 percentof senior high teachers hold master's or equivalent degrees. Only 30percent of the teachers have taught in the district for less thanfour years. There are 113 teachers in Minneapolis and 94 teachers inSt. Paul who devote at least 50 percent of their time teachingsecondary mathematics.

The two districts have similar mathematics curriculums. Bothare somewhat traditional, yet teachers have considerable autonomy interms of the content and pacing of lessons.

Two of the universities in the Twin Cities are involved in thisproject: the University of Minnesota and Macalester College. TheSchool of Mathematics at the University of Minnesota has a longhistory and interest in the continuing education of mathematicsteachers. This is due to the commitment and enthusiasm of a number

Gu

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of senior members of the School of Mathematics to secondary schoolmathematics in Minnesota.

As a major industrial center, Minneapolis is a home for manymajor industries including: Honeywell, Control Data, Cray Research,Sperry Corporation, Medtronics, Pillsbury, General Mills, St. PaulCompanies, Minnesota Mutual, First Bank Corporation, and NorthwestCorporation.

C. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COLLABORATIVE PROJECT

Contact was first made by the Ford Foundation with WillardMiller, Chair of the School of Mathematics at the University ofMinnesota. The approach was based on both the school's knowninterest and record of activity with teachers and gifted students.

The Twin Cities Urban Mathematics Collaborative was establishedwith Professors Harvey Keynes and Willard Miller as joint directors.Chris Ennis, coordinator of the collaborative, is also a member ofth; School of Mathematics with experience in the University ofMinnesota's Talented Youth Program. The steering committee consistsof representatives of the University of Minnesota, the Minneapolisand the St. Paul School Districts, the Science Museum, MacalesterCollege, and two corporations: Honeywell and St. Paul Fire andMarine.

D. RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER LOCAL INITIATIVES

The previous involvement of the University's School ofMathematics in the Talented Youth Mathematics Program has provided abasis for this cooperative effort with mathematics teachers. Infact, the Twin Cities Urban Mathematics Collaborative is itselfproviding a means of piloting strategies for a statewide, NSF fundedproject for mathematicians to impact precollegiate mathematics.

E. PROJECT ACTIVITIES

The teaching force in the Twin Cities is seen to be bothexperie-:.ed and F-nerally knowledgeable mathematically. The view isthat teachers req...ire renewal rather than retraining. A major issueis, How can teachers be freed from the dominance of textbooks? Thus,the primary focus is not one of changing the curriculum, but ofpedagogy. In particular, the concern is how to transform theteaching of mathematics from the presentation of facts and processesto one of problem solving. This perspective involves two elements:first, there is a needed pedagogical change involving lessonstructure and teacher-pupil relationships; and second, the view ofmathematics is to be changed from a functionalist or formalist

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approach to a more intuitivist or constructivist one. Given thisorientation, three activities of the Twin Cities Urban MathematicsCollaborative Project should be mentioned.

The initial activity of the collaborative was the establishmentof the Twin Cities Pre-College Mathematics Society. Thisorganization will organize functions which bring about professionaland social contact between mathematics teachers and both universityand industrial mathematicians.

The first activity of the Society involved a series of dinnermeetings to which teachers, university faculty, and mathematiciansfrom some corporations were invited. These meetings were addressedby keynote speakers who spoke on mathematical topics. Teachers weretreated as mathematical colleagues, competent to understand and beinterested in mathematical issues. To date, three dinner meetingshave been held. The first was held on March 25, 1985, the second onMay 15, 1985, and the third on October 10, 1985. Each hadapproximately 60 teachers in attendance as well as 15-25representatives from corporations and colleges.

The second activity was the Urban Mathematics CollaborativeSummer Institute (UMCSI). The Inotitute was held for three weeks forfive hours daily. There were 19 participants, 8 from Minneapolis and11 from St. Paul, rerresanting 11 schools. The participants wereawarded a $600 stipend and University of Minnesota graduatemathematics credit.

The ',85 Summer Institute focused on problem solving. Itstressed content while addressing methodology. The problem-solvingsessions were directed by Professor Bert Fristedt. These sessionswere held each day. There were also nine lectures by HoneywellCorporation personnel describing the mathematics used in particularfields, four lectures given by University professors, and one paneldiscussion on Nome., in Mathematics." A computer lab was madeavailable to participants.

During the summer work, three projects were compl d by theparticipants. First, writing groups mapped out instructional unitsintegrating content with specific problem-solving skills for foulareas: Discovery Math, Algebra-Trigonometry, Enriched 7th GradePre-Algebra, and Geometry. ,econd, a problem-solver's handbook wascompiled with annotated listings of problems from the summer work.And third, the exercise book Going to the Workforce was revised.

A follow-up to the Institute has been planned. The participantswill meet monthly to continue the work begun in the summer. GerrySell, the on-site observer for the collaborative, will observe eachteacher's class and talk with each teacher about the impact of thesummer workshop. Also, a teacher advisory committee of five

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participants will meet regularly with Chris Ennis and Harvey Keynesto advise the collaborative.

F. OBSERVATIONS

The Summer Institute was a resounding success. It is evidentthat the activities provided needed intellectual stimulation forteachers. The lecture series provided teachers with new informationand perspectives. In particular, the problem-solving componentprovided an opportunity for collegial interaction, while dealing withsubstantial mathematical issues. One of the reasons for theInstitute's success was that it was not a "course" in the usualsense. The teachers were active participants, and the ultimateoutcomes are to by a set of classroom materials produced by and forteachers.

One fundamental problem being addressed in this project is thestereotypic role of universities in any collaborative effort.Universities usually are seen as experts providing knowledge toclients. Thus, university staff members have often treated schoolteachers in a paternalistic rather than collaborative fashion, andboth teachers and administration have come to expect this kiad ofrelationship. If the participating teachers have an equal and activerole in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of thecollaborative project, the very historical success of the School ofMathematics as a provider could be a source of concern. In thissituation, we would have an example of the type of barrier whicharises from a "healthy" environment. The history of the departmentin successfully providing for teachers may give rise tc aprovider-client relation with its mutual expectations. This could bean obstacle to the development of a timely collaborative enterprise.

In particular, it will be important to document the reactions ofschool administrators to the teachers' projects and theirimplementation, and to teachers' reliance on the School ofMathematics and Twin Cities Pre-College Mathematics Society forsupport.

This problems, is being addressed by the establishment of anadvisory committee of teachers to help guide the development of thecollaborative 1,:Aer.Z. Further thought is now being given to theproblem of develop.:vg teacher leadership skills. In fact, the TwinCities Urban Mathematics Collaborative Project is tackling thisproblem head-or in advance of the other collaborative projects.

A second problem to be notea is the lack of involvement of theuniversity mathematics education community and of educators generallyin the activities and planning of the project. After unsuccessfulovertures to the mathematics education faculty at the University ofMinnesota, Uri Treisman (University of California-Berkeley) was hired

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and provided excellent assistance to the participants of the SummerInstitute. However, long-term or regional local involvement is stilla problem.

A third concern relates to the involvement of mathematiciansfrom t'-'e corporate sector. Honeywell has actively participated inthe project to date; their lecture series during the summer was wellplanned and received. This project, however, needs to broaden itsindustrial support.

G. NEXT STEPS

In addition to continuing the successful activities of thecollaborative (Precollege Mathematics Society Dinner Meetings andSummer Institute with ita follow-up activities), several steps arebeing taken to strengthen the collaborative nature of the project andto instill a sense of ownership in the participating teachers.

First, a Teacher Advisory Council consisting of five teachersfrom the Summer Institute has begun meeting on a regular basis. Amajor goal of the council is to strongly encourage leadership sharingand collaboration. It should provide a powerful vehicle for theadvocacy of ideas generated by teachers from both within and outsidethe council, as well as provide the collaborative's SteeringCommittee with a valuable sounding board for new ideas andmodification of older ones. For example, the council has alreadybeen instrumental both in recommending the inclusion of junior highspecific activities for collaborative participants and in modifyingthe application form for upcoming NSF/UMC Summer Institutes. Theoriginal application form for last summer's UMC Institute was foundto be somewhat intimidating by several teachers.

Second, the number of teacher and industrial/business members ofthe collaborative Steering Committee has been significantly increasedto two teachers (previously one) who are also members of the AdvisoryCouncil, and four industrial / business representatives (previouslytwo). This will allow for greater interchange of i eas anddevelopment of programs involving these groups. In particular, asubcommittee of the Steering Committee on industrial/schoolcollaboration has been established to explore further possibilitiesin this direction, and all four industrial/business representativesto the Steering Committee have enthusiastically agreed to serve onthis subcommittee. Furthermore, greater involvement of both teachersand industrial mathematicians as speakers at the dinner meetings ofthe Twin Cities Pret liege Mathematics Society has been planned.Third, a separate subcommittee of the Steering Committee has beenestablished to address the issue of teacher professionalization.This committee will deal with the difficult i ..sue of how to betterinvolve teachers in the .ecirion making process, not only within the

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collaborative but also within their own school systems, as advocatesfor the type of changes they as professionals desire.

In addition to the continued involvement of the mathematicsconsultants from the St. Paul and Minneapolis public schools and thepossible future involvement of consultant Uri Treisman, thecollaborative is seeking the involvement of one additional memberfrom the mathematics education community of the greater Twin Citiesarea. Certain individuals have been considered and inquiries arebeing made as to their interest and commitment to the project. It ishoped that such an individual will be appointed to the SteeringCommittee in the very near future.

Finally, a regularly published newsletter for the collaborativeis being prepared. The first issue will be mailed to allparticipants in late December or early January. All mathematicsteachers will receive this newsletter at their home address. Thenewsletter is being coedited by one of the junior high teacherparticipants in the Summer Institute. The newsletter is designed toencourage teachers to learn about and discuss issues related to theirprofessional lives.

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SUMMARY REPORT:DURHAM COLLABORATIVE: THE DURHAM MATHEMATICS COUNCIL

by

Thomas A. Romberg & Allan PitmanUrban Mathematics Collaborative Documentation Project

University of Wisconsin-Madison

December 1985

PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT

The intent of this report is to summarize the initial activitiesof the Durham Urban Mathematics Collaborative. The report isintended to be factual and interpretive. It is not the purpose ofthe Documentation Project to judge whether or not the organization ofthis collaborative or the activities it has carried out meet theobjectives of the Ford Foundation.

The interpretations have been made in light of the intent of theFord Foundation to establish projects:

- to extend the sense of professionalism among teachers bybuilding a support system that links them to colleagues inthe mathematical sciences, inside and outside the schools;

- to provide teachers at all levels with colleagues upon whomthey can call for information concerning any aspect ofschool mathematics; and

- to enable teachers to enlarge their view of mathematics,their sources of examples, and their repertoire of classroomskills in communicating mathematics.

The information presented in this %:eport came from the followingsources: the proposal submitted by the Planning Committee to theFord Foundation, the meeting in Cleveland of project directors andcoordinators in October 1985, a retrospective interview with BarbaraNelson of the Ford Foundation, documents provided by the projectstaff, and three site visits by the staff of the DocumentationProject.

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DURHAM COLLABORATIVE: THE DURHAM MATHEMATICS COUNCIL

A. PURPOSE

The Durham Mathematics Council is a collaborative programdesigned to provide mathematics teachers with opportunities forprofessional growth and for colleagueship with other teachers andlocal mathematicians.

The Planning Committee identified five major areas forinvolvement regarding professional growth for secondary schoolmathematics teachers. They are:

- enhancement of knowledge about local mathematicsapplications,

- expansion of the limited opportunities for teachers totravel,

- support for more opportunities for teachers' growth asmathematicians,

- provision of opportunities for professional colleagueship,and

- combating loss of professional self-esteem and "burLout."

B. CONTEXT

The population of Durham is approximately 160,000. Durham formsa segment of an economic and educational zone known as the Triangle,which comprises Durham, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park and ChapelHill. The collaborative project involves both the Durham City andthe Durham County school districts.

The Durham City Public School District serves approximately8,400 students with 13 elementary, 5 junior high and 2 high schools.The superintendent of the school district is Dr. Cleveland Hammonds,who has served in the position for a long time. Dr. CleopatraHargett Lawton has been the Director of Instruction for more than 10years. She has taken a direct interest in the mathematics curriculumand has an officer specifically responsible for mathematics in herdepartment.

Of the students in grades 7-12, 85 percent are black and 15percent are white. Forty-six percent of the students receive federallunch program assistance. About 63 percent of the graduatingstudents enter some form of postsecondary education. Slightly morethan half of the 2,333 high school students (grades 10-12) were

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enrolled in a mathematics course in 1984. In the two high schools,93 percent of the students are black, six percent are white and onepercent are from other racial groups.

Of the system's sixteen high school mathematics teachers,fifteen majored in mathematics and one in mathematics education, withfour holing masters degrees in mathematics. They average elevenyears experience in teaching high school mathematic-. There are alsotwenty teachers of mathematics at the middle school level; of these,five majored in mathematics or mathematics education. All arecertified to teach mathematics and have an average of fourteen yearsof teaching experience. The racial composition of the faculty in allthe secondary schools (grades 7-12) is 65 percent black and 35percent white.

The Durham County School system enrolled 16,268 students in1984. The system serves a mix of urban, suburban and rural students.Nearly 8 percent of the students receive assistance under the federallunch program. The racial composition of the student population inthis system is 69.2 percent white, 29.4 percent black, and 1.4percent other racial groups. Of students graduating from the system,68 percent pursue postsecondary education. About 80 percent of the3,914 high school students in the three high schools were enrolled inmathematics courses last year. Students take an average of 3.47 highschool mathematics courses.

The Durham County school system employs 495 secondary teachers,ol whom 79 percent are white and 20 percent are black. There are 35high school mathematics teachers (grades 9-12) as well as 25mathematics teachers for grades 7-8. All are certified to teachmathematics, and all except one have a major in mathematics ormathematics education. Twelve have higher degrees in mathematics.These teachers average nearly ten years of teaching experience.

The mathematics curriculum is, to a degree, the responsibilityof the schools. A list of approved texts is issued by the StateDepartment of Public Instruction. Local school districts then choosea single book for each mathematics course to be used throughout thedistrict. In these two districts, the selection committees arelargely made up of teachers. Schools may provide supplementarymaterials and texts, however, these are not paid for by the DPI. Thesalary scale for teachers is determined at the state level and rangesfrom $15,500 to $24,000.

There is a diverse set of resources available in the regionarouhd Durima, known as the Triangle. Major industries establishedin the region include Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, CentralCarolina Bank and Trust Company and a number of high technologycompanies including the IBM Corporation. The National Institute ofEnvironmental Health Sciences is located in the Triangle Research

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Park, North Carolina Mutual Life, one of the nation's largest blackowned financial institutions, is he-Aquartered in Durham.

The ciLy hosts two universities and a technical institute. Aspecial residential school for gifted children, the North CarolinaSchool of Science and Mathematics, is part of the Universit, of NorthCarolina system. Nearby Res2arch Triangle Park is the site of theSoutheastern Regional Council for Educational Improvement.

C. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COLLABORATIVE PROJECT

The initial contact between the Ford Foundation and Durhamoccurred in late January 1985 when Barbara Nelson contacted theuirector of NCSSM, Mr. Charles Eilber. On February 21 there was ameting at the School of Science and Mathematics of Barbara Nelson,the Director and some faculty of the school, and representatives ofthe Durham City and Durham County schoo Oistricts. Business leaderswere invited to the luncheon and to the second part of the meeting.Those in attendance were strongly supportive of pursuing the project.From the date of this meeting it took only ten weeks of intenseeffort for a final proposal to be presented to the Ford Foundation.Responsibility for establishing the project was given to J. KeithBrown, Head of Outreach and Research at NCSSM and Director of theMathematics and Science Euucation Center of t;.. North CarolinaMathematics and Science Education Network.

Immediately following the meeting, Mark Leuchtenberger, who 1,1tthe time was the Development Officer of NCSSM, wrote r -roposal for aplanning grant. Funding of $2500 was quickly granted. An executiveplanning committee of 16 people was established. Gerlrally thestrategy was to identify specific individuals within corporations andinstitutions rather than approach the organizations themselves. Thiscommittee met weekly and had a first draft of a proposal ready by theend of April. In late April the Chamber of Commerce's educationcommittee hosted a breakfast so that business leaders could hear apresentation about the project. At the breakfast a "businesspackage" was distributed. The packet prov:ded background informationabout the collaborative and listed means of assistance in cash andkind that corporations and institutions could offer. A pledge cardwas included. Responses yielded considerable "in kind" sup)ort, anda relatively small cash commitment.

There were two meetings with teachers during April. On April 2,a luncheon meeting was held for 12 city and county secondarymathematics teachers who had been identified by the dist,:ictmathematics supervisors. The activities to be included in theproposal were formulated at this meeting. Three weeks later aslightly expanded group met to review the proposal. Feedback fromthis meeting wag; used to check the targeting of teacher concerns, to

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modify the content of the proposal, and to provide tnese teacherswith a sense of ownership in the project.

A final meeting of the planning committee with Barbara Nelsonled to the fine tuning of the propoJal, whic1. was then submitted onMay 7, 1985. Notification was received on August 12, 1985 thatfunding for the collaborative, the Durham Mathematics Council, wouldcommence on August 1. The fiscal agent was identified as the Fundfor the Advancement of Scienr-, and Mathematics in North Carolina.This foundation is the receiN_ag agent for the NCSSM, in whosebuildings the directorate of the proje "t is located. Dr. Brown wasappointed Project Director of the Council. His position is supportedby the North Carolina Mathematics and Science Education Network.

An issue of intense debate arose at the May 7 meeting of theplanning committee, centering on the definition of the skills to berequired of the Executive Director, who was yet to be identified. Itwas resolved that primarily this pezaon should have credibility amongteachers, and have teaching, mathematical, and organizational skills.The capacity to tap local sources for financial and material supportwould be in the province of the chairman of the Council's Board ofDirectors. The position of Executive Director was filled in August1985 by the half-time appointment of Dr. Jo Ann Lutz, a mathematicsteacher at NCSSM.

D. RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER LOCAL INITIATIVES

The establishment of the Durham Mathematics Council occurred ata time of statewide expansion of the North Carolina Mathematics andScience Education Network (NCMSEN). The involvement of the NorthCarolina School of Science and Mathematics in the network hasincluded summer seminar work and a pilot telecommunication projectfor teachers and pupils of science and mathematics. The schooloffers activities for endorsement to teach academically giftedchildren. Other sites in tte network offer activities for collegecredit.

The primary thrust of the network was toward out -of- -fieldteachers and those mathematics-endorsed teachers needing furthermathematical knowledge. The Ford collaborative ef_ort complementsthis initiative by providing activities for the fully certifiedteachers in the two districts. I has been 'reviously mentioned thatthe project director of the Council is also Director of theMathematics and Science Education renter of the North CarolinaMathematics and Science Education Netw')rk.

The Ford initiative, the Durham "athematirs Council, provides apilot for similar future initiatives of the statewide network inother North Carolina cities.

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E. PROJECT ACTIVITIES

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The Durham Mathematics Council was introduced to teachers at areception held at the Sheraton University Center in September 1985.About 45 teachers, two principals, anti half of the Council's Board ofDirectors attended. Howard Clement, as Chairman, spoce on behalf ofthe Board, and Jo Ann Lutz outlined tne intentions and curreLtlyplanned activities of the collaborative project. Teachers wereinvited to attend through personal letters sent to their homes. Atthe reception, a background information sheet was circulated whichrequested both personal data regarding qualifications and teaching,and information about the degree of interest in a range ofMathematics Council activities. All teachers were invited toindicate a willingness to serve as a school representative on ateachers' steering committee. While teachers appeared pleased withthe idea of the steering committee, at the time of writing not allschools were represented. About two thirds of 110 questionnairesdistributed either at the meeting or through the mail have beenreturned.

Three periodical imlletins have been produced. The first,published in early October, was largely introductory and focused onthe MiSSiCh of the Council. In response to information in the firstbulletin, two junior high school teachers sur afully approached theCouncil for funding to attend the NCCTM Me,: 4 in Charlotte, NC onOctober 27-28. The second bulletin, dated November 4, advertisedboth coming activities and the involvement of teachers earlier in theyear. In response to information in the second bulletin, threeteachers, two from the same school, applied for a grant to attend theFamily Math programs in Berkeley in January. Although only twoplaces were advertised, all three teachers received funding. Releasetime is available a& a result of the County District's commitment tothe Council. No inquiries have as yet been received it response toan offer to support attendance at the NCTM meeting in April 1986.

Three of five planned seminars have been held. Dr. ChrisPortier, of the National Institute of Environmental Health Science,spoke to 17 teachers on November 20 on the topic "Quantitative RiskEstimation." That was followed by a second seminar on December 10 atwhich Rich Moore of the tobacco company Liggett & Myers discussed"The Importance of Mathematics" with 35 teachers at the company'sheadquarters. In his address, Mr. Moore stressed the importance offundamental mathematical concepts, problem solving skills, andattitude.

F. OBSERVATIONS

Given the relatively show tartup period from the first contactwith the Ford Foundation, thib collaborative has made significant

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strides. A completely new organization exists which brings togetherrepresentatives of Durham's business, college and school districtcommunities.

The two school districts being served by the Council provide aseries of contrasts. The City school district serves a predominantlyblack student population and has a supervisor of long standing. TheCounty school district, which serves a predominately white studentpopulation, has a new superintendent who is actively working toimprove the system. The degree to which tuese differences influencethe short term success of the Council in involving teachers is amatter of speculation. To date, only County teachers have appliedfor funding to attend the NCCTM and Famil3 Math activities.Furthermore, they have been the overwhelming majority at the twoseminars. This is an issue that Jo Ann Lutz addressed in a meetingwith City school district principals in December. At the same time,she appealed to the principals to encourage teachers to use theresources of the collaborative and also asked them to facilitateteachers' participation when release time from school was iLyolved.

There has been some disappointment that more teachers have notasked the Council for funding. This may, however, be associated withtwo elements. The first is the sense of some teachers that they are"locked in" and powerless. The second is that in order to beconsidered for support, a Professional Development Plan is required.Preparing a plan may be intimidating to a number of teachers;however, the significant proportion of teachers who have completedthem have had little difficulty once they made the attempt. In fact,more teachers have provided Professional Development Plans than havesought funds.

G. NEXT STEPS

It is expected that the current range of activities will expandas teachers become accustomed to using the Council. At this time oneteacher is preparing to seek support to undertake graduate study.

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SUMMARY REPORT:PITTSBURGH URBAN MATHEMATICS COLLABORATIVE

by

Thoiaas A. Romberg & Allan PitmanUrban Mathematics Collaborative Documentation Project

University of Wisconsin-Madison

December 1985

PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT

The intent of this report is to summarize the initial activitiesof the Pittsburgh Urban Mathematics Collaborative Project. Thereport is Intended to be factual and interpretive. It is not thepurpose of the Documentation Project to judge whether or net theorganization of this collaborative or the activities it has carriedout meet the objectives of the Ford Foundation.

The interpretations have been made in light of the intent of theFord Foundation to establish projects:

- to extend the sense of professionalism among teaches bybuilding a support system that links them to colleagues inthe mathematical :iences, inside and outside the schools;

- to provide teachers at all levels with colleagues upon whomthey can call for information concerning any aspect ofschool mathematics; aid

- to enable teachers to enlarge their view of mathematics,their sources of examples, and their repertoire of classroomskills in communicating mathematics.

The information presented in this report comes from thefollowing sources: the proposal submitted by the Steering Committeeof the collaborative to the Ford Foundation, the meeting in Clevelandof project directors and coordinators in October 1985, aretrospective interview with Barbara Nelson of the Ford Foundation,documents provided by the project staff, and three site visits by thestaff of the Documentation Project.

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PITTSBURGH URBAN MATHEMATICS COLLABORATIVE

A. PURPOSE

As stated in the proposal submitted to the Ford Foundation inJune 1985, the primer; purpose of the Pittsburgh Urban MathematicsCollaborative is to increase the professional status of the highschool teachers of mathematics in Pittsburgh. Status is defined interLs of both self-concepts and the values outsiders assign to highschool mathematics teachers.

This two-fold goal is to be approached by providingopportunities for professional self-enhancement and for expandingteachers' knowledge-base of mathematics' applications. Theseactivities will facilitate teacher interaction, thereby helping toovercome teachers' Jsolation. A key component in achieving thesegoals is the prz,v1,Aou of time; for interaction, for work and forprofessional devement. Additional efforts will be directed towardproviding opportunities for teacher recognition and for educating thecommunity about the professional nature of high school mathematicsteachers.

B. CONTEXT

The Pittsburgh metropolitan area has a population of 2.5 millionpeople. The city itself has a population in excess of 400,000. Thearea is served by the Pittsburgh Public Schools District. Thesuperintendent is Dr. Richard Wallace, who has held the positionsince the 1980-81 academic year. The central office support forcurriculum areas was reorganized at the start of the 1985-86 academicyear. Four positions as subject area directors are as yet unfilled;one of which is for mathematics. There is an instructionalsupervisory staff of four who are assigned responsibilities based ongeographic region. This regionalization, instituted in July 1, 1985,replaces the earlier elementary/middle/ junior high/senior highschool division of responsibility. The district is now organizedinto 49 elementary (K-5), 15 middle (6-8) and 12 high schools (9-12).Good relations exist between the superintendent's office and thelocal teachers' union.

A school closure program is nearing completion. The districtserves approximately 41,000 kindergarten through twelfth-gradestudents in 76 schools. Of the student population, 52 percent areblack and 48 percent are white, with other groups not beingsignificantly represented.

There are 126 high school mathematics teachers. Of these, tenare black. All 126 teachers are fully certified to teach mathematicsand average neatly 20 years experience it the classroom. There hasbeen no recruiting for some years, as the district's population has

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declined. Teaching positions will soon open as teachers on thismaturing teaching force retire. For example, two of the twelvedepartment chairs are within five years of retirement.

The state legislature has recently mandated that all studentstake three years of mathematics in grades 9-12. This requirementdemands a differentiated curriculum to cater to the "weakerstudents", and has created a focus on the provision of generalmathematics courses at eleventh grade.

Although there is a district mathematics curriculum, schoolsdiffer considerably both in the structure of their course offeringsand in academic achievement. There have been great gains in academicachievement in the last five years, but at this time baseline dataexists only at the elementary and middle school levels.

There are a number of initiatives operating within thePittsburgh Public Schools District, including the Schenley HighSchool Teacher Center which has obtained national recognition for itswork in teacher renewal. The Center for Advanced Studies (CAS)programs in selected high schools provide very rigorous curriculumfor students having an IQ in excess of 130. CAS classes have 15-18students; teachers of these classes are given extra preparation time.A Scholar's program is offered, which is less rigorous than CAS. Thedistrict's 24 magnet programs, which are not all academic, aredirected at desegregation.

In the community at large, Pittsburgh is endowed with a numberof valuable resources including non-profit organizations, such as theCarnegie Institute, the system of Carnegie libraries, and the BuhlScience Center, which houses a number of exhibits and projectsrelevant to mathematics education. There are also severaluniversities, among them the University of Pittsburgh andCarnegie-Mellon University. The Pittsburgh Council of HigherEducation represents the senior administrators of local univers14!_eF.

Industrially and commercially, Pittsburgh has been through apainful economic restruct,ring, with the transition from a heavyindustrial base founded on steel to one tied more to "hightechnology" industries, regional service industries and fir'nce. Anumber of businesses and industries are headquartered in the city.

Finally, the Allegheny Conference on Community Development(ACCD) is Visaed in Pittsburgh. Within ACCD is the AlleghenyConference Education Fund which is already involved in a range ofactivities relevant to the collaborative.

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C. ESTABLISHMENT F THE COLLABORATIVE

The initial contact between the Ford Foundation and Pittsburghwas made in late 1984 between Barbara Nelson of the Ford Foundationand Jane Burger of the Allegheny Conference Education Fund. TheSteering Committee first met with Barbara Nelson on March 30, 1985.The committee was chaired by Robert Wilburn, former Secretary ofEducation in Pennsylvania, and currently the director of the CarnegieTnstitute. Also present were the superintendent of the Pittsbdrghschool district, the president of the local teacher's union, and thedirector of the Learning Research Development Center at theUniversity of Pittsburgh. The Allegheny Conference and BuhlFoundation were also represented, as was the local PublicBroadcasting station. It was felt that the collaborative should havea strong base both inside and outside of the Allegheny Conference.On March 11, 1985 Dr. Leslie Salmon-Cox of thE Learning DevelopmentResearch Center (LRDC) of the University of Pittsburgh was approachedthrough the Director of the IRDC, Dr. Lauren Resnick, with therequest that she become involved in the establishment of thecollaborative project. From then on, the development of the proposalbecame primarily the responsibility of Dr. Salmon-Cox, who is asociologist by training. In the following week, Dr. Salmon-Coxinterviewed each of the eight members of the Executive Committee ofthe Steering Committee individually in order to establish theirunderstandings of what the Ford Foundation was offering, and whatPittsburgh needed. These interviews were supplemented by discussionswith public school teachers and with Superintendent Wallace. OnApril 9, a summary paper was presented for discussion at a fullmeeting of the Steering Committee.

At a meeting of the Steering Committee with Barbara Nelson onApril 30, a one-month extension to the proposal deadline wasnegotiated. The proposal was to be written by Dr. Salmon-Cox,circulated to members for feedback and submitted by the new deadlineof July 5. In lete July, funding for the collaborative project wasconfirmed with a start-up date of September 1. The collaborativebegan operation on October 1, with the fillf.g of both leadershippositions. The titles adopted for these positions is important inunderstanding the orientation of the project.

The post of director, to which Dr. Salmon-Cox was appointed, istitled Coordinator in the belief that key to the collaborative isthe local definition of local needs, and that this is best done byteachers themselves. The mission of the collaborative is to initiateactivity while balancing multiple interest groups. In time, thecoordinating role may diminish as participants move to theforeground. The half-time assistant coordinator is Dr. MartinaJacobs, a specialist in instructional psychology, who was a writerand editor for the Carnegie Institute and High Technology Council.

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The lack of secondary mathematics teaching experience in thedirectorate of the project is not seen as a problem. For severalyears the coordinator has been working with teachers in thePittsburgh Public Schools in formative evaluations and othercolleagial activities, and is well known to them.

On October 1, Superintendent Wallace sent a letter to all thechairs of the high school mathematics departments announcing the "newresource program," the Pittsburgh Mathematics Collaborative. Thiswas followed by a letter from Dr. Salmon-Cox to the principals. OnNovember 1, the department chairs were invited to a dinner followedby a half-day workshop. At the dinner the participants were treatedto an informal talk on discrete mathematics. On the following day,after a brief description of the collaborative project, thedepartment chairs discussed problems, projections, and concernsand developed plans to reach their teachers.

D. RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER LOCAL INITIATIVES

The collaborative will draw upon and supplement existinginitiatives as well as draw support from a number of them. Forexample, the mini-grants program sponsored by the AlleghenyConference Education Fund will be supplemented by an allocation fromthe collaborative of $6,000 for mathematics teachers. The PittsburghCouncil on Higher Education has a rummer internship program whichenables teachers to work in industry, and the Schenley Teachers'Center provides internships for teachers on its faculty. The HighTechnology Council has designated the collaborative as one of itsthree special projects for the next year.

E. PROJECT ACTIVITIES

The first major initiative of the collaborative has beendirected toward mathematics curriculum reform. Given the requirementof the state legislature for a third year of general mathematics, andthe district policy decision to give more responsibility to subjectchairs, Superintendent Wallace has endorsed the collaborative as thecontext for discussion of the issue. Consequently, the chairs of thehigh school mathematics department are to meet six times under theauspices of the collaborative to formulate recommendations for thenew course and its content. The district is funding three of thesemeetings.

The concentration of the initial efforts on the departmentchairs is part of a strategy which is behaved will facilitate a longterm atmosphere that is supportive of teacher involvement in thecollaboratie's activities. The major focus of the collaborative'sprogram is discussion of new curriculum.

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Preliminary work is underway to establish a series of industrialsite visits. The foci of these will be on the nature of vocationaltraining and on jobs available now and in the future. A summerinternship program is also being prepared. It is believed that thefirst impact of these efforts might be on those students who are notcollegebound.

F. OBSERVATIONS

The collaborative was established at a time of reorganization inthe Pittsburgh Public Schools. On July 1, 1985, directorates werecreated for subject areas. Presently three of these, including theposition in mathematics, are unfilled. The instructional supervisorystaff duties in mathematics have been redefined, with geographicregional responsibility replacing the elementary /middle /juniorhigh/senior high school division between the four officers. Thehiatus associated with these changes has provided the context for thenew project to step into a meaningful facilitating role.

G. NEXT STEPS

The collaborative is now setting up its program of activities.Mathematics teachers will be introduced to present and future

growth areas in the Pittsburgh workplace (e.g., manufacturing, hightechnology, health care, financial services) and jobs in these areaswhich have implications for mathematics education. Opportunities totour specific companies that are representative of these growth areasand to speak with individuals in various job categories at thecompanies are being planned.

At the present time, a new pilot program is being neveloped inPittsburgh. The notion is to link job training to economicdevelopment through a centralized, customized job training program.Mathematics teachers will be put in touch with the individuals whoare providing trained employees for new and expanding companies inthe Pittsburgh region.

In identifying jobs requiring mathematics skills, the majorfocus will be upon students entering the workforce with either a highschool diploma, or limited vocational training. This group not onlyappears to be of major concern to high selol mathematics teachers,but is also the group on whom c high school mathematicsteacher/employer collaboration can have the greatest direct impact.

Several forms of communication, within and about thecollaborative are planned. A project newsletter will be developed,primarily for internal cmmunication. Information about the projectwill also be included in the school district's regular publicationand in the newsletter produced by the Allegheny Conference

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Partnerships program, which is distributed to business and foundationcommunities.

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LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT AREA

B. Bradford BrownAssistant ProfessorEducational Psychology

Anne M. DonnellanAssociate ProfessorStudies in Behavioral

Disabilities

CLASSROOM PROCESSES AREA'

Thomas P. CarpenterProfessorCurriculum and Instruction

SCHOOL PROCESSES AREA

William H. Clung*.ProfessorLaw

Gary D. Gaddy*Assistant Professor

' Journalisa and MassCommunication

Adam Comoros*Assistant ProfessorSociology

Carl A. GrantProfessorCurriculum and Instruction

Herbert J. KlausmeierPounding KIR Director and,'.

V.A.C. Hermon Professor.

Educational Psychology

SOCIAL POLICY AREA

William H. Clung*.ProfessorLaw

W. Lee Hansen'ProfessorEconomics

Carl F. KaestleProfessorEducational Policy Studiesand History

Joseph F. Kauffman'ProfessorEducational Administration

William EpsteinProfessorPsychology

Arthur M. GlenbergAssociate ProfessorPsychology

illaaboth R. FemmesProfessorCurriculum and Instruction

Mary H. Metz*Associate ProfessorEducational Policy Studies

Fred M. Newmann*Secondary Center Director andProfessor

Curriculum and Instruction

P. Martin Nystrand*Associate ProfessorEnglish

Janice N. Patterson*.Assistant Scientist

Allem J. PitmenLecturerSchool of EducationDeakin University

Cora B. Marrett*ProfessorSociology and Afro-AmericanStudies

Michael R. OlneckAssociate ProfessorEducational Policy Studies andSociology

40101111111 A. Embers

ProfessorCurriculum and Instruction

William M. Reynolds*ProfessorEducational Psychology

Laurence Steinberg*ProfessorChild and Family Studies

Penelope L. PetersonProfessorEducational Psychology

Stewart C. Purkey*.Assistant ProfessorLawrence University

Thomas A. RombergProfessorCurriculum and instlIction

Richard A. P.ossailler*ProfessorEducational AdmiaistratiSs

Robert A. batter*Assistant Scientist

Cary G. %blase*ProfessorCurriculum and Instructio*

Kenneth M. Zeichnor+Associate ProfessorCurriculum and Instruction

Francis K. Schram*ProfessorEducational Policy Studies

Marshall S. Smith*.SUR Director and ProfessorEducational Policy Studiesand Educational Psychology

Jacob O. Stamper'Assistant ProtestorEducational Administration

*affiliated with the National Cotter or Effective Secondary Schools. University of Wisconsin-Madison

/affiliated with the Costar Ert OiEicy Ismorth is Educeidi4S, Niftier* University'affiliated with the Coster on Postsecondary Management and Governance. University of Neryland+affiliated with the Center on Teacher Education, Michigan State University

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