BLOOMINGTON- Three area school districts are among 12 in the state that will work with Indiana University on a new program to improve mathematics education.
The National Science Foundation has awarded $2 million to IU to create the Center for Mathematics Education at the Bloomington campus, university officials announced Monday.
The center is using the money to launch the Indiana Mathematics Initiative. The five-year program is a partnership of the center, the Indiana Education Network and 12 urban school districts, including East Chicago, Gary, and Hammond schools.
The project will focus on providing math teachers with seminars and workshops, technical support, leadership, development and coordinating their teaching to state education reform efforts.
The program focuses on math instruction at the middle school level and early high school level.
"What makes this project truly innovative is that it brings together groups that do not customarily join forces to solve common problems - mathematicians, mathematics educators, school teachers and administrators, parents, curriculum developers, and publishers, and state officials." said William Frascella, who will be the center's director. He has been chairman of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at IU South Bend for the past five years.
Hammond and East Chicago schools have worked with the education network for the past three years to improve math teaching, and the grant and new center at IU will allow more teachers throughout the state to get involved, said Barbara Moore, executive director of the Indiana Education Network. Gary is new to the project this year.
Maria Dalhoumi, assistant director of secondary schools in East Chicago, said the district has had 21 teachers participate in the process that led to this new program.
"The new center will provide extended opportunities for the training of teachers with Indiana Mathematics Initiative curriculum materials," she said. " There will be summer workshops available, and this will go one step beyond to provide teacher support and additional opportunities for teacher growth."
Robin Kaminsky, assistant principal at Eggers Middle School and the Indiana Mathematics Initiative coordinator in Hammond, said the grant will give teachers who receive training from the center more time to work with and teach other teachers in the district.
"The workshops are quite fabulous," Kaminsky said. "Teachers learn about new material and new activities that promote student thought processes and learning. The workshops allow for hands-on learning and seem to be working wonderfully."
Though the center is based in Bloomington, Moore said most of the workshops are held regionally throughout the state.
