Nebraska Mathematics Scholars Program for Secondary School Teachers

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This Leadership Activities project will provide enhancement and professional development experiences for 60 exemplary secondary school mathematics teachers from rural Nebraska school districts. The overall goals of the multiyear project involve: 1) the updating and deepening of the participants' mathematics backgrounds and teaching methodologies, 2) the networking of the participant Fellows, six outstanding secondary mathematics teachers selected to be part of the project staff as Senior Fellows and the six university and college mathematics faculty, 3) the conduct of implementations of problem-solving lessons in participants' classrooms, 4) the conduct of at least four all-day in-service workshops by the participants for their colleagues in their home schools, 5) appropriate recognition for honors teacher participants, 6) the dissemination of the project methods, materials and results to nearby school systems and rural states, and 7) the investigation of the modelistic approach within a carefully planned documentation, assessment and evaluation effort. Selections of the 60 project Fellows and six Senior Fellows will be based upon detailed applications requiring expressions of teacher and school commitments to implement project emphases. Twenty Fellows, two Senior Fellows and two professors will study together at each of three sites (UN-Lincoln, Chadron State College, and Hastings College), all completing a similar program of professional development after three years which will include 6 graduate mathematics courses, 3 computer seminars and 3 dissemination seminars (24 graduate credits from UN- Lincoln). The participants will complete a five-week intense residential workshop each summer, rotating as a group to a different campus each summer. Participants will be visited and observed in their classrooms and in their workshops with their peers, and each will prepare a videotaped session to be shared with project staff and participants. Careful documentation and analysis of these observations and of teacher reports will provide a significant basis for a detailed project evaluation, both by project staff and expert external evaluators.