{"id":974,"date":"2013-10-10T19:10:40","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T19:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/?p=974"},"modified":"2013-11-05T15:48:53","modified_gmt":"2013-11-05T15:48:53","slug":"investing-in-math-teachers-adds-up-to-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/investing-in-math-teachers-adds-up-to-success\/","title":{"rendered":"<h2>Investing in Math Teachers<\/h2> <h1>Adds Up to Success<\/h1>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you want students to excel at math, invest in outstanding teachers.<\/p>\n<p>Research indicates that enhancing teachers\u2019 skills is critical to significantly improving mathematics achievement. A newpartnership between UNL faculty and the Omaha Public Schools aims to do just that.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>A $5.5 million grant from The Sherwood Foundation and the Lozier Foundation in Omaha supports a three-year collaboration between UNL\u2019s NebraskaMATH team and Nebraska\u2019s largest school district. Goals are to strengthen mathematics learning in OPS classrooms, narrow student achievement gaps between different populations and conduct research that informs school improvement efforts.<\/p>\n<div class=\"imageBlock\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1oksY1mnY_A?rel=0\" height=\"600\" width=\"900\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>\u201cThanks to past support from the National Science Foundation, our NebraskaMATH team has a proven record of providing robust content-based professional development for teachers and research that studies\u00a0teacher knowledge and student learning,\u201d said Jim Lewis, project leader and Aaron Douglas Professor of Mathematics. \u201cWe believe that a dramatic investment in OPS mathematics teachers will impact student learning in the OPS district, both short and long term.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The NebraskaMATH OPS Teacher Leader Academy consists of Primarily Math, a program for K-3 teachers; Math in the Middle, a master\u2019s degree program for grade 4-8 teachers; and fellowships for OPS K-12 math teachers to take courses at no cost through the Nebraska Math and Science Summer Institutes. The grant also supports six K-3 and two middle-grade math coaches for OPS.<\/p>\n<div class=\"imageBlock\">\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/investing-in-math-teachers-adds-up-to-success\/colton_connie-teaching-la\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-979\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-979\" alt=\"Colton_Connie teaching LA\" src=\"http:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Colton_Connie-teaching-LA-450x300.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Colton_Connie-teaching-LA-450x300.jpg 450w, https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Colton_Connie-teaching-LA-900x600.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/investing-in-math-teachers-adds-up-to-success\/driessen-img_0829-sv\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-981\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-981\" alt=\"Driessen IMG_0829 SV\" src=\"http:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Driessen-IMG_0829-SV-450x300.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Driessen-IMG_0829-SV-450x300.jpg 450w, https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Driessen-IMG_0829-SV-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Driessen-IMG_0829-SV.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div dir=\"ltr\" data-font-name=\"g_font_386_0\" data-canvas-width=\"224.04489324178698\">Connie Colton (left) and Marni Driessen (right)\u00a0in their Omaha\u00a0Public Schools classrooms. Both graduated from UNL\u2019s NSF-<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\" data-font-name=\"g_font_386_0\" data-canvas-width=\"216.47665449047096\">funded teacher education initiatives and now are instructors\u00a0for the NebraskaMATH OPS Teacher Leader Academy.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The project expects to reach more than 250 OPS teachers over three years. The first teachers began graduate coursework in July 2013.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the project, UNL faculty will study the impact of professional development on teachers\u2019 beliefs and knowledge; student outcomes; and school culture\u2019s impact on student achievement. They\u2019ll also establish a studio classroom as a model for implementing instructional change in K-3 classrooms. This project and its research results will provide a national model for effective mathematics teacher education, said Lewis, director of UNL\u2019s Center for Science, Mathematics and Computer Education.<\/p>\n<p>The OPS Teacher Leader Academy builds on UNL\u2019s NSF-funded teacher education initiatives \u2013 Math in the Middle, NebraskaMATH and NebraskaNOYCE. Nearly 75 OPS teachers have participated in those programs, forming a base of teacher-leaders for the current project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you want students to excel at math, invest in outstanding teachers. Research indicates that enhancing teachers\u2019 skills is critical to significantly improving mathematics achievement. A newpartnership between UNL faculty and the Omaha Public Schools aims to do just that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[491,1],"tags":[638,527,636,633,698,706,40,637,700,634,697,699,635],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=974"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1409,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974\/revisions\/1409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}