Michigan State University seeks funds for a three-year program to promote the improvement of the teaching of mathematics to middle school minority students. This will be accomplished through a three-week summer workshop for Professional Development Teams of middle school mathematics teachers and support people (secondary or college mathematics teachers, supervisors or administrators) from eleven urban school districts in Michigan. Current exemplary materials in the teaching of algebra, geometry and visualization, probability and statistics, and contributions of African-Americans to mathematics will be used. Participants my earn six hours of graduate credit for the summer workshop. School year follow-up activities will include two, one-day conferences and two visits by staff members to each of the school districts. Each year 45 middle school mathematics teachers and support people will be enhanced and expected to return to their schools as teacher-leaders to enhance an additional 225 second-wave teachers. In all 810 teachers and support people should be enhanced during the lifetime of the project. Michigan State University's cost-sharing will account for 13% of the NSF budget. Reaching, teaching and retaining minority students in mathematics is an NSF and indeed a national goal of the highest priority. This project has the potential of providing a prototypic model for an in-service delivery system capable of empowering teachers to achieve this goal.
