At the Lynch School, a community of mathematicians and educators come together to mentor beginning teachers, bolster math curricula, and improve the substance and quality of math teaching in high-need, urban schools.
Lynch School Associate Professor Lillie Albert and two Boston College math department colleagues in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences were awarded $1.6 million in 2013 by the National Science Foundation to train, support, and help retain math teachers in Massachusetts鈥� public schools.
Their project, 鈥淓xemplary Mathematics Educators for High-Needs Schools,鈥� is part of the Lynch School鈥檚 efforts to prepare qualified and effective math and science teachers and of the mathematics department鈥檚 interest in improving K鈥�12 math education. Solomon Friedberg, the James P. McIntyre Chair of Mathematics, and Associate Professor of Mathematics Chi-Keung Cheung are project co-investigators.
The project is made up of eight beginning teachers鈥攚ho were master鈥檚 students when the program began鈥攎entored by one of eight experienced teachers and one of six practicing mathematicians who add to their subject-matter expertise and familiarize math professors with the problems and demands of teaching high school math. It is supported by colloquia on teaching math and math practice seminars.
Six years later, here鈥檚 what they鈥檝e learned.