$1.3 million grant to fund studies from 30 years of math performance

The IU School of Education will be studying 30 years of mathematics with a $1.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

The grant will be used for a three-year study analyzing the National Assessment of Educational Progress data, said Peter Kloosterman, the Martha Lea and Bill Armstrong Chairman for Teacher Education and a professor of mathematics education.

The study, titled “What Mathematics Do Students Know? Implications from NAEP for Curriculum and Policy,” is a continuation of the previously funded project from 2002 and will compare the mathematical knowledge students know today to the past three
decades.

“The program we applied to was looking for projects that improve instruction in schools for math and science,” Kloosterman said. “I’m very familiar with this program, and that’s why we applied for that program within NSF. One thing that makes this prestigious is that there is a lot of research for improving instruction, whereas our money is for research to see how effective curriculum is.”

The research team received similar funding from 2002 to 2006, and this research follows up some of the research from then but also expands into new territories, Kloosterman said.

“We made a reputation that things are working well so it is now easier to get more money,” he said. “We’ve been doing bits and pieces since last grant, but we will put a lot more time in on the new projects starting in January.”

The research will also focus on the connection between performance and specific books used in schools, Kloosterman said.

“Overall, this should allow us, at least at the fourth grade level, to see if one book is better than another one,” he said.

Kloosterman said he is planning to write a book on what the National Assessment results mean for elementary, middle and high school levels.

“We do much better in mathematics in school than people give us credit for,” he said. “We want people to do even better, and I’m excited to be able to contribute to better math students in the United States. This will be one of many things that will help.”