The Math and Science Partnership (MSP) project Promoting Excellence in Arizona Middle School Mathematics: Increasing Student Achievement through Systemic Instructional Change involves 10 Core Partners: Scottsdale Community College (as the lead), Chandler-Gilbert Community College and Glendale Community College, and the Deer Valley, Scottsdale, Fountain Hills, Chandler, Florence, J.O. Combs school districts, as well as Salt River Pima-Maricopa Community Schools. Supporting partners are: Arizona State University, Maricopa County Community College District, and the Glendale, Mesa, and Peoria school districts. This MSP Targeted project supports teachers in advancing their knowledge about the teaching and learning of middle school mathematics, as well as developmental mathematics in community colleges.
The Promoting Excellence in Arizona Middle School Mathematics (PEAMSM) project provides a systemic model of sustainable professional development in partner schools and colleges to achieve the goal of increasing student achievement in middle school mathematics courses, thus enabling these students to make a successful transition to more challenging courses and curricula in high school. Project activities are in four areas: Teacher Knowledge Development; School-Based Collaborations; Capacity-Building; and Research. The project also produces research about the characteristics and mechanisms of a sustainable professional development program, as well as contributes to the body of knowledge for understanding teachers' and students' mathematical thinking and beliefs. PEAMSM targets 300 in-service middle school mathematics teachers, 32 middle school mathematics teacher-leaders, 40 middle school administrators and 140 pre-service middle school teachers in the Phoenix, AZ metropolitan area and impacts a total of 24,000 students in grades 5-8.
PEAMSM possesses a substantial research portfolio. The primary research question is "In what ways does the teacher professional development experience promote sense-making, computational fluency, problem solving and conceptual understanding of mathematical ideas among middle school mathematics teachers?" There are several other research questions that involve investigating different aspects of the professional development and its effects on teachers and the students they teach. Project findings will be prepared for publication in peer-reviewed journals of mathematics education and for presentation at state and national conferences. The project provides a national model for professional development and teacher education conducted by community college faculty trained in mathematics education research.
