Weaving Gender Equity - Our Partners

"The investigations are carefully designed to invite all students into mathematics - girls and boys, members of diverse cultural, ethnic, and language groups, and students with different strengths and interests."
- Investigations in Number, Data, and Space(1998)

A central focus of the work we do involves collaboration with the NSF-funded elementary mathematics curricula. Each of these groups offers professional development opportunities for math teachers through workshops, written materials, and video cases. Many of these efforts already include information on equity in the mathematics classroom. Our project's goals are to help the groups extend the equity content of their workshops and other materials, make this information more explicit, and provide teachers with the tools to think about their own classroom practice.

The six groups that are part of the Weaving Gender Equity into Math Reform project are:

Developmental Studies Center: The Developmental Studies Center (DSC), formed in 1980, is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help children develop intellectually, ethically, and socially. The mathematical focus of Number Poweris the development of number sense - the ability to use numbers to understand and function in the world-to estimate, compute, solve problems, and judge the reasonableness of solutions. The program also addresses students' social development. Lessons are structured so that students not only work cooperatively to solve mathematical problems, but they also discuss the nature of their group's interaction and their roles in it.
Everyday Mathematics: Everyday Mathematicswas developed through the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project (UCSMP), whose mission is to change mathematics education in the United States. The curriculum encourages teachers and students to go beyond arithmetic-to explore more of the mathematics spectrum by investigating data gathering and analysis, probability, geometry, patterns, and algebra. Mathematics is integrated into other subject areas and becomes part of the ongoing classroom routines, outdoor play, and the spare transitional moments that occur every day.
Investigations Workshops for Transforming Mathematics: Investigations Workshopsare intensive professional development opportunities for K-5 teachers and administrators. These workshops have been designed by the developers of the Investigations in Number, Data and Space®curriculum, and are designed to support teachers and administrators as they work to enrich their elementary mathematics program. The workshop's approach stresses teachers' mathematical learning and focuses on some of the new roles they are assuming in classrooms: learner, researcher, mathematical leader, decision maker, and facilitator of collaborative learning.
Mathematics Renaissance: The goal of the Mathematics Renaissance is to develop K-12 district-based learning communities dedicated to ensuring that all students learn important mathematics. These communities are composed of mathematically powerful teachers who understand how students learn mathematics, and who know how to help students deepen and expand their mathematical understandings across the years.
Math Trailblazers: Math Trailblazersis an elementary mathematics curriculum for schools that want their math programs to reflect the goals and ideas of the NCTM Standards. The curriculum is based on the belief that mathematics is best learned in real-world contexts that make sense to children; that all students deserve a richer and more challenging curriculum; and that a balanced and practical approach to mathematics learning is what students need and what teachers want.
Video Cases for Math Professional Development (VCMPD): The VCMPD Project is creating professional development curriculum materials titled "Learning about Teaching Mathematics." These materials are designed to help teachers learn about teaching mathematics through the use of video, transcripts, student work, teacher reflections, and commentaries. Teachers will learn about mathematics content and pedagogy, while developing a stance of inquiry toward teaching and learning to teach. The mathematical focus of these materials will be algebraic thinking.

TERC's partner for Weaving Gender Equity into Math Reform is the National Coalition for Equity in Education, based at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The NCEE strives to ensure that schools and colleges provide complete respect to people, provide the necessary resources (material and human) for all people to learn at the highest level, and are active in combatting inequity. The NCEE works primarily with leaders in the mathematics reform community and offers intensive equity-immersion workshops for those committed to parity for all students.