Science Foundation donates $1.3 million

A group of three IU mathematics professors in the School of Education will head a national program to improve mathematics education throughout the country thanks to a $1.3 million grant given to the school by the National Science Foundation.\nThe grant will fund the interpretation and analysis of data by the National Assessment of Educational Progress and producing material to aid math teachers around the country.\n"We will have people from the University and all over the United States looking at different pieces of the data," said IU professor of mathematics education Pete Kloosterman. "Over the three years, we're going to produce two books which talk about what the data says about teaching. The books will be available to people all over the country."\nKloosterman, a co-principal investigator on the project, will be joined by Cathy Brown and Frank Lester, both associate deans for research and development in the School of Education.\nThe data from the NAEP was collected from 1990 to 2000 and is based on national samples of close to 43,000 students from grades four, eight, and 12.\nThe data focuses partly on students' performances on open-ended questions where students must show how they arrived at an answer. \nFocusing on how students find mathematical answers can help teachers abilities to see where students go wrong and how they can help.\n"We will have a lot of examples of explanations students usually give," Kloosterman said. "In particular, the type of errors students usually make."\nKloosterman said he believes most mathematics taught in this country focus entirely too much on solving easy, repetitive math problems.\n"We need to get kids to focus more on solving complex problems," Kloosterman said.\nThe group will team with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics along with teams from Missouri, Georgia, Michigan State and others.\n"It was good for IU to be the lead institution," Kloosterman said.\nBrown will help Kloosterman in producing the materials for the nation's math teachers.\n"The part I'll be working on most is developing materials for teachers to work with," Brown said. Those materials will generally be available online.\nJack Cummins, the executive associate dean of the School of Education, believes the choice for IU to head the project shows the expertise the school possesses.\n"I think it recognizes the leadership we have among the faculty in the mass education area," Cummins said.\nConsistently ranked in the top twenty each year among schools of education, Kloosterman believes this project only maintains the School of Education's experience.\n"This is a very highly visible project that reinforces the notion that we are one of the top twenty in the country," Kloosterman said.\nKloosterman said the three-year project will more than likely reduce the amount of time he could be teaching, but is looking forward to tackling the problem of mathematics education in the country.\n"It fits right in with all the things that I teach, so it'll be nice in that respect," Kloosterman said.