The Mobile Mathematics Initiative 2009-2010
The Mobile Mathematics Initiative (MMI) is in its tenth year and has impacted 22 elementary and 4 middle schools who participated in its school-wide initiative in Decatur City, Hoover City, and Mobile Public School Systems. Over 800 teachers have participated in MMI summer institutes, learning research-based strategies for teaching mathematics both for meaning and mastery. Districts provide schools that are involved in the 4-year implementation phase of MMI with math coaches who provide support to teachers as they try out their newly learned instructional practices. MMI-certified leaders visit classrooms at each school involved in the implementation phase of MMI once each quarter to monitor implementation and provide support to teachers, coaches, and administrators.
The third cohort of the Academy for Excellence in Mathematics Education’s Teacher Leadership Program completed its third and final year in May, 2008. The fourteen teachers and math coaches in this cohort join the other 42 Academy Teachers in providing leadership in mathematics education to teachers in Decatur, Hoover, and Mobile schools.
A key component of the Mobile Mathematics Initiative involves its ongoing research and development efforts. Currently these efforts center on the work of the Vermont Mathematics Partnership (VMP) and its OnGoing Assessment Project (OGAP). Based on a successful pilot with 10 teacher leaders in 2007 that showed improved student achievement with fractions associated with implementation of OGAP, the MMI partnered with the VMP to develop additional trained mentors in Decatur, Hoover, and Mobile in OGAP’s formative assessment process related to fractions and multiplicative reasoning. The trained mentors “mentee” third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade teachers at their schools in the OGAP process so they can integrate the formative assessment system into their district’s curriculum and pacing guides at appropriate places. With anticipated additional grants, the MMI plans to extend its partnership with VMP to include their research on proportional reasoning and the implementation of their formative assessment system in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade classrooms in districts associated with MMI.