Project Profile: "Texas Middle and Secondary Math"

Stephen F. Austin State University and twelve independent school districts establish the Texas Middle and Secondary Mathematics Project as an effort to positively impact student achievement in mathematics through better preparation of teachers to teach mathematics. The partner school districts serve over 40,000 students, with variable percentages of minority students (non-white students range from 9% to 64% of student population in the different districts) and high percentages of economically disadvantaged students (28% to 67% of student population). As is true in Texas as a whole, the teacher workforce in partner districts does not match the diversity within the student population, and many new teachers of mathematics are not certified in the discipline and have not majored in mathematics.

The Texas Middle and Secondary Mathematics Project expects to improve the capacity of mathematics teachers in grades 4-12 to impact student performance within the partner districts by:

• increasing the number of qualified and certified mathematics teachers directly as sixty middle school and thirty high school mathematics teacher will be produced;
• preparing teachers to become Texas Master Mathematics teachers who will, in turn, provide leadership and mentoring for other teachers; and
• increasing student performance at higher levels in mathematics through classroom experience and summer institutes for students.

In addition, an underlying premise of the partnership is that higher education mathematics faculty are not generally accustomed to thinking about the pedagogical needs of the middle or high school teacher. Therefore, the Project will improve the awareness and involvement of mathematics higher education faculty regarding preparation and professional development of teachers by involving mathematics faculty from a variety of higher education institutions across Texas in the effort, and noting evidence within college/university mathematics departments of curricular and programmatic changes designed to better meet the needs of grades 4-12 mathematics teachers.