Questions and Answers

Renewing Mathematics Teaching Through Curriculum is a federally funded project that will give Southwest Michigan communities a head start in implementing a highly acclaimed mathematics curriculum that will change the way high school mathematics is taught. You will be hearing about the impact of RMTC in the months ahead from teachers, students, school administrators, and the news media. Read on for the answers to some of your questions.

What is RMTC? Funded by the National Science Foundation, RMTC is a collaborative effort involving a cast of thousands at 15 high schools and their feeder middle schools in Southwest Michigan. The four-year project is the result of brain-storming sessions involving teachers, administrators, and university faculty. RMTC continues to be led by teachers and supported by mathematics educators at Western Michigan University. The goal of RMTC is to provide support for schools as they implement the new Core-Plus Mathematics Project curriculum. RMTC will provide three years of intensive professional development for all high school mathematics teachers as well as some middle school and special education teachers in the school districts that make up the collaborative. Week-long summer workshops for teachers started in June 1997. During the school year, teachers are being supported and challenged by a series of sessions designed to continuously improve the mathematics learning that takes place in their classrooms.	What is the Core-Plus Mathematics Project curriculum? The Core-Plus Mathematics Project (CPMP) curriculum was developed at Western Michigan University in collaboration with mathematics educators at the University of Michigan, the University of Iowa, the University of Maryland, California State University at Northridge, and the University of Wisconsin. It is being used in rural, suburban, and urban schools in 18 states in addition to Michigan (at the time of this writing). The CPMP is an innovative mathematics curriculum that has been developed with funding from the National Science Foundation. It features a three-year curriculum for all students and a fourth-year course that continues the mathematical education of students who plan to attend college, including those who may become professional mathematicians. Each year of the CPMP curriculum focuses on four connected strands of mathematics - algebra and functions; statistics and probability; geometry and trigonometry; and discrete mathematics. While those areas of study may have a familiar ring about them, there's little that is familiar about the way they are taught.
What's in it for this district and our children? The National Science Foundation has made a significant financial commitment to supplement your district's efforts to make sure teachers have every opportunity to make a smooth transition to teaching mathematics of the future. Among other things, RMTC is funded for $1,200 per teacher in workshop expenses and an average of $1,600 per teacher in stipends. Workshop straining started in the summer of 1997 and laid the foundation for further professional development during future years of the project. For students, RMTC can mean a smooth transition to CPMP that is guided by well-educated teachers who have necessary information and professional support. Students and teachers alike will be able to focus their energies on the mathematical skills required for students to participate fully in their future work and academic lives.	What can I do to help? Every member of the community can become involved and help make the RMTC project and the implementation of the Core-Plus curriculum a success. To be most effective as a parent, school board member, business leader, or school administrator, you can begin by being informed, involved, and supportive. Be informed about Core-Plus and how RMTC will change the mathematics classroom. Attend parent and community information sessions, visit your school and ask questions about anything that puzzles you. Share what you've learned with your friends, neighbors, and business associates. Commit yourself or organization to support teachers as they grapple with the demands of an innovative way of teaching mathematics. Once you've made the effort to be informed, you will understand how difficult the transition can be for teachers, but you'll also understand that their efforts and yours will result in a world of new opportunities for students to develop a higher level of mathematical literacy that will allow them to fully participate in the society of the future. Get involved. Just visiting a classroom tells both teachers and students that you are interested and that you care about what is happening. If you are part of a community business organization, consider having your firm strike up a partnership with a class. Such a partnership can include exchange programs that bring students into the workplace to see mathematics concepts applied in real life, or it may mean having a series of speakers from your company give brief talks to students in the classroom. Financial assistance is always needed as schools struggle to ensure all students have access to necessary technology.
Our teachers already know how to teach math. Why do they need more education? Learning to use the CPMP materials effectively is one of the most difficult transitions math teachers may face in their careers. Teachers who already are using CPMP will often say, "It's the hardest thing I've ever done." Real drama is involved when teachers need to transform their teaching methods, develop fluency in mathematics areas they've never before explored, and become proficient with new technology. To do all of that, teachers taking part in RMTC will spend a minimum of 130 hours over the next three years attending summer workshops and regular school-year meetings, working with mentors, and observing each other's classroom instruction. Several teachers in the RMTC collaborative schools have been working on this transition for the past four years and have assumed primary roles in implementing CPMP. Now it's time for all math teachers at participating schools to have an opportunity to learn how to implement the new curriculum. Just as CPMP is for all students, RMTC is for all teachers.
What kind of changes can I expect to see in the classroom? A CPMP classroom is an active experiment-based learning environment. You may find that activities in CPMP classrooms more closely resemble a science lab than a traditional mathematics class. You will see CPMP students working together in groups to investigate, conjecture, verify, and apply mathematics concepts. Students will be involved in doing mathematics with a passion that may amaze you. They also will be learning to evaluate and communicate mathematical ideas. When you visit a CPMP classroom, you'll also see technology such as graphing calculators being used as tools to increase student understanding of complex mathematical topics.

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