Making the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics a Reality for Teachers
National experts from different fields of educational research gathered at North Carolina State University last week to discuss the nation-wide problem of how to provide high quality mathematics professional development at scale to support the implementation of the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSS-M).
“As a university with a strong STEM focus and commitment to both research and outreach, we are pleased to have the opportunity to host this National Science Foundation funded event,” said Chancellor Randy Woodson. “Through our College of Education and the Friday Institute, as well as many other units of the University, NC State is deeply committed to helping improve K-12 STEM education in North Carolina and nationally.”
Participants in this professional development workshop included educational researchers, mathematicians, mathematics teacher educators, policy-makers and practitioners. The event, held at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, allowed for collaborative sessions for a group of mathematical and research experts from around the country.
The new Common Core Math Standards call for different stakeholders to learn from decades of experiences implementing state standards in order to make mathematics instruction more focused and coherent for children. These standards offer an opportunity to rethink the ways in which professional development for mathematics teachers is organized.
"Bringing a group of experts from different fields and with different perspectives to work together and generate recommendations for mathematics professional development practice was very important to us as we organized the meeting. We are really glad the meeting fostered productive interactions and allowed for two very insightful days of work” said Dr. Paola Sztajn, professor of mathematics education at NC State, who organized the meeting with Dr. Karen Marrongelle, Portland State University, and Dr. Peg Smith, University of Pittsburgh.
The experts were divided into small groups to brainstorm, provide evidence and finalize recommendations for what should be considered when creating, sustaining, and assessing professional development systems at scale and in line with the CCSS-M. All of the workshop participants prepared a two-page brief with their own perspectives on the issue and came together to discuss the commonalities and differences of their recommendations. The final day of the meeting concluded with a synthesis to begin to combine these various list into one set of recommendations.
The meeting organizers are working on a final list of recommendations, will share them with meeting participants for member-checking and then present the final list of recommendations in a report that will be made available to the public through the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE), Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics (ASSM), Mathematical Association of America (MAA), National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Click here to see additional pictures from the workshop.