I’m at a meeting of the APLU Science and Mathematics Teacher Imperative, where I was reminded of the 2010 CBMS Forum White Paper on educating teachers for the Common Core, which I think will be useful to people planning teacher preparation and professional development.
Here is the draft report of the policy workshop Gearing Up for the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics, held at the Westward Look resort in Tucson, Arizona on 1–2 April 2011. The workshop convened representatives from state departments of education and school districts, the K–12 community, mathematicians, mathematics educators, professional development deliverers, and policy organizations to develop recommendations for the initial domains of professional development on the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics. [Link updated 5/11]
Included in the Common Core are eight standards for “mathematical practice”
that describe habits of mind employed by proficient users of mathematics.
Understanding and implementing the mathematical practices will be key to the
impact of the CCSS. The Implementing the Common Core Standards Workshop will
provide an introduction to the Common Core Standards for Mathematical
Practice, with an emphasis on algebra. Specifically, we will examine
standards MP2 (reason abstractly and quantitatively), MP7 (look for and
make use of structure), and MP8 (look for and express regularity in repeated
reasoning), with examples of how these practices can bring coherence to
seemingly disconnected standard topics in elementary, middle and high school
mathematics.
More information is available online at:
http://www2.edc.org/CME/mpi/workshop.html
In addition to the efforts mentioned here and here, COMAP is holding a three-day invitational conference in Washington, DC from April 29–May 1, funded by the National Science Foundation. According to the PI Sol Garfunkel, this working meeting will bring together about 70 representatives from mathematics education practitioner organizations, the two assessment consortia, state and national education policy groups, and major instructional materials development teams. The purpose is to build a productive dialogue between the key players in implementation of the Common Core State Standards. The conference will draw on the expertise of mathematics educators with responsibilities close to the everyday work of schools and specialists in curriculum materials development in order to inform the development of high quality assessments.
In addition to the workshop I mentioned here, a new NSF funded-project will be developing recommendations for professional development. In the words of the PIs, Karen Marrongelle, Peg Smith, and Paola Sztajn:
“Articulating Research Ideas that Support the Implementation of the Professional Development Needed for Making the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics Reality for K-12 Teachers is a newly funded NSF project that will coordinate knowledge from different fields to develop recommendations for the design, implementation, and assessment of large scale professional development systems consistent with the mathematics of the CCSS. Research results from diverse perspectives (e.g, mathematics education, organizational theory, professional development) will be articulated into a coherent framework and a set of recommendations for successful large-scale, system-level implementation of mathematics professional development initiatives. The recommendations will be disseminated through the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Additionally, the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators, the Mathematical Association of America, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, and the Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics are partners in this effort.”
The Institute for Mathematics and Education is having a conference on professional development for the mathematics standards, April 1–3, in Tucson. Space is limited, but if you are interested, send an email to ime@math.arizona.edu.