This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The Math for America DC program is a collaboration between American University's (AU) School of Education, Teaching, and Health (SETH) and Department of Mathematics and Statistics (M/S), Carnegie Institution of Washington's Carnegie Academy for Science Education (CASE), the DC Public and Public Charter Schools, and Math for America (MfA). Its goal is to improve secondary school math teaching in Washington, DC schools by recruiting, training, mentoring, and retaining 14 Teaching Fellows with strong mathematics backgrounds. In the MfA DC program, Teaching Fellows obtain certification and teach for four years in Washington, DC, a high-needs school district, following an intensive 15-month period in a specially designed academic program that includes classroom experiences. Throughout the 5-year program, Fellows experience specially designed professional development, intensive mentoring, and expert support particularly at induction. The AU-SETH partner provides a Master of Arts in Teaching in Secondary Education: Mathematics, with emphasis on teaching math and the challenges of a high needs district. AU-M/S provides graduate level math courses, including a course focusing on secondary school math content. The AU program encompasses 18 credits in pedagogy, 15 credits in math content courses, and 500 hours of teaching and observing in the classrooms of outstanding secondary school math teachers. CASE is providing fundraising and organizational efforts (such as recruitment and mentoring and professional development during the four teaching years), and is coordinating activities with the MfA organization in New York. The participating district is providing Fellows the opportunity to observe and teach during their training and teaching years, cooperating in the certification process, and ensuring access to available teaching positions after the training year.
The program is serving as a test of the idea that a teacher's deep content knowledge can enhance secondary school students' understanding and learning of math. The experiences of the Fellows are contributing important information concerning the pedagogical training and support needed to make STEM professionals effective teachers for high needs students. Findings are being shared with the local and national education communities through presentations at meetings and scholarly publications. The program goals address the national need to improve the education of disadvantaged youth so that they can complete high school, aspire to college and productive employment, and become contributing citizens. The program's association with the MfA program is, with other MfA cities, serving to amplify the impact and expand the data that can inform math education improvement nationwide.
