This project will provide support for planning activities to launch the Curriculum Action Project of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). This project is a comprehensive national effort to stimulate and amplify efforts to strengthen the mathematical sciences at the undergraduate level. The primary objective of the planning period is to develop and disseminate an intellectual agenda for undergraduate mathematics that can guide the National Science Foundation, the MAA, and the broader mathematical community. A secondary objective is to initiate a broad-based dialogue about this agenda both within the mathematics community and with the many external constituencies whose own efforts are loosely linked to collegiate mathematics. The project's long-term goals are to promote curriculum reform; to identify and publicize examples of effective innovation; to reshape faculty attitudes; to improve quantitative literacy; and to align assessment with appropriate curriculum objectives. The MAA will convene a series of focus groups to help identify issues and recommendations, will enlist its twenty- nine regional sections to initiate grass-root discussions, and will prepare a report for wide distribution. The MAA plans to extend this project in subsequent years to help promote widespread implementation of effective approaches to collegiate mathematics.
