An Improving Teacher Quality State Grant

A Higher Education Partnership Grant

Deepening Mathematics Content: A Professional Development Opportunity for Teachers of Grades 5 - 9

This was a six-month project whose primary goal was to assist 30 teachers of mathematics in the Lawrence, Haverhill, and Tyngsborough Schools in expanding their knowledge of mathematics content in the five strands of the Mathematics Curriculum Frameworks. The program was specifically designed to help teachers demonstrate their proficiency via successful achievement in the full licensure process as well as to strengthen their ability to instruct all their students effectively with confidence and enthusiasm.

The program consisted of two one week long 6 hour per day intensive courses - the first took place at the end of the 2003-2004 school year and the second just before the start of the 2004-2005 school year. There were also two day-long follow up Saturday meetings in the Fall of 2004 that continued to focus on the acquisition of mathematics content knowledge.

In addition to assessing the acquisition of content knowledge through pretest and posttest administrations, teachers were visited in their classrooms by course instructors who assessed how they were aligning their mathematics curriculum and instructional practice with the Frameworks, as well as how they were engaging their students as active articulate learners.

Participants at Work