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abstract:
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The Indiana Mathematics Initiative (IMI) is a five-year teacher enhancement and curricular implementation effort involving a partnership among Indiana University, the Middle Grades Network, and twelve urban school districts in Indiana. The project provides extensive professional development experiences of 132-180 hours for each of 445 mathematics teachers and administrators in 62 middle and secondary schools that are fully committed to mathematics education reform at all grade levels. The experiences are designed to enable each teacher to use effectively one of four sets of NSF-supported middle school instructional materials (Connected Mathematics, Mathematics in Context, Seeing and Thinking Mathematically, or Six through Eight Mathematics) or one of four sets of NSF-supported secondary school materials (Core Plus, ARISE, Interactive Mathematics Program, or SIMMS).
Submitted under the guidelines for Local Systemic Change through Teacher Enhancement in Mathematics, Grades 7-12, the project seeks to create significant changes in how the teachers perceive mathematics and how it is learned, as well as in their views of their roles in middle/secondary mathematics classrooms. These changes are being effected in a variety of ways: (1) intensive and extensive meetings, seminars, and workshops involving the teachers, IMI staff, and representatives of the curriculum projects; (2) continuous support and technical assistance by IMI staff following seminars and workshops; (3) leadership development of lead teachers, district curriculum coordinators, and other school administrators to insure sustained, systemic change; and (4) coordination with current state reform efforts, especially Indiana's upcoming mathematics textbook adoption process.
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