Mathematics

Throughout my career, I have collaborated with dedicated and hard-working teachers who have opened their classrooms so that others could learn from them. Yet, one teacher, Sara, stood out from all the others. From the first time I visited Sara's classroom in 1992, I knew she was extraordinary--a teacher who could inspire a Hollywood production. Sara taught Latino English language learners (ELLs) in a low-income urban neighborhood in ways that I had not observed or read about in the literature. She did not reduce the curriculum's level of complexity, especially its language, even though the students were ELLs. Instead, Sara engineered a mathematics learning environment where students actively engaged in collaborative problem solving, oral and written communication and justification, and independent thinking. To give other practitioners insight into how Sara facilitated the participation of ELLs during mathematics, I share my experiences of researching Sara's fifth-grade classroom and provide images of her teaching.

A middle school mathematics teacher taught native English speakers for the first fifteen years of her career. As immigrants from other countries moved into the community and student demographics began to change, she realized that she was not prepared to teach mathematics to students who were English language learners (ELLs).
The demands that she faced are not unique. The recent growth of the ELL population in the United States has challenged teachers to identify effective strategies to meet the needs of ELL students and their families.

Equity in mathematics education should be one of the most important concerns of
teachers, administrators, policy makers, mathematicians, and mathematics educators. In fact, the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educator (AMTE), the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM), and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics NCTM), three national organizations that support teacher educators, mathematics teachers, and teacher leaders, have made equity a priority for their organizations (Gutierrez et al. 2008). Position statements, standards documents, and various books identify key equity issues and recommend directions compelling all involved in the mathematics education of students to become aware of equity issues and to take steps toward eliminating the inequities that plague K-16 education.

Developed by the Education Development Center and Bank Street College of Education, this professional development program will show general and special education teachers how to collaborate to provide a high-quality, standards-based mathematics education to all students, including those with disabilities. The Math for All learning experiences detailed in the corresponding facilitator’s kit will help teachers:
•Assess students’ strengths and needs
•Use multiple instructional strategies to teach specific math concepts
•Tailor lessons based on individual students' strengths and needs to help them achieve high-quality learning outcomes in mathematics

This program will emphasize how the neurodevelopmental demands of a math lesson interact with individual students' strengths and needs. The authors will provide step-by-step guidance for adapting materials, activities, and instructional strategies to make lessons accessible to all students. This participant book includes the handouts and reproducibles for the program. The forthcoming kit will include a facilitator’s guide and a corresponding DVD.

Developed by Bank Street College of Education and the Education Development Center, this comprehensive professional development resource contains all the materials you need to conduct workshops that will show general and special education teachers how to collaborate to provide a high-quality, standards-based mathematics education to all students, including those with disabilities. The materials will deepen the understanding of both the facilitators and of the participants in these workshops. This resource will enable schools and school districts to increase the expertise of their math and special education leaders and provide their own workshops for teachers rather than hire outside consultants to do so.

The Math for All learning experiences detailed in the enclosed books and DVDs help teachers
•Assess students' strengths and needs
•Use multiple instructional strategies to teach specific math concepts
•Tailor lessons based on individual students' strengths and needs to help them achieve high-quality learning outcomes in mathematics

The authors emphasize how the neurodevelopmental demands of a math lesson interact with individual students' strengths and needs. They also provide step-by-step guidance for adapting materials, activities, and instructional strategies to make lessons accessible to all students.

This comprehensive resource includes two DVDs: one with PowerPoint presentations and embedded classroom videos, and a second DVD with just the video portion that shows examples of how teachers in Grades 3-5 have made math lessons accessible to students—including those with physical, learning, and language challenges. Also enclosed is the Math for All Participant Book, which includes the corresponding handouts and reproducibles for the program.

Laurie H. Rubel (Brooklyn College) discusses a teacher learning community for high school teachers in New York City organized to develop practices of culturally relevant mathematics pedagogy. This project, named CureMap, emphasizes the connections between mathematical concepts, procedures, and facts; focuses mathematics instruction on students’ experiences; and strives to develop students' critical consciousness about and with mathematics.

This article reports findings from a research and professional development project at two high schools located in low-income, urban communities of color. The project collaborates with teachers on improving their instructional practices, using a framework of culturally relevant mathematics pedagogy, which is described in detail here. We present results from a qualitative and quantitative analysis of mathematics instruction in 68 classroom observations of seven teachers. In particular, we use culturally relevant mathematics pedagogy as a lens through which to analyze instruction and the associated opportunities to learn mathematics provided to students.

Redistricting can provide a real-world application for use in a wide range of mathematics classrooms.