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The Mid-Atlantic Center for Mathematics Teaching and Learning (MAC-MTL),
funded by the National Science Foundation, is a five-year project involving
three research universities and three large school systems, with two principal
objectives:
- To design and implement innovative doctoral program
components for use in the mathematics education doctoral and
postdoctoral programs at three research universities: The
Pennsylvania State University (PSU), the University of Delaware
(UD), and the University of Maryland (UM).
- To develop, evaluate, and disseminate model components for the
mathematical education of pre-service teachers and professional
development of in-service mathematics teachers in elementary, middle,
and high schools.
This document is the MAC-MTL external evaluation report,
covering the period August 15, 2001 through August 15, 2002.
This report includes an overview of the current evaluation plan,
evaluation activities during Year Two, and our
findings/recommendations.
The evaluation plan, developed jointly by Center faculty and NCISE staff, uses a time series,
repeated measures design focused on assessing progress toward the two MAC-MTL objectives.
Data collected soon after the grant award served as initial baseline data against which
subsequent evaluation data was compared to measure progress. Evaluation activities use a
mixed method design combining document review, surveys, interviews, and observational data.
NCISE staff will visit each participating institution at least once per year, and will
assist with analysis of the evaluation data using accepted forms of qualitative and
quantitative analysis. Given differences in foci between the faculty and their professional
interests at the three universities, we have emphasized to MAC-MTL faculty that we do not
expect everyone to make the same kind of progress on all of the project tasks, and that this
will be taken into account in our evaluation of the project.
During the second year of the project we attended selected project planning meetings,
reviewed documents from those activities not directly observed, interviewed faculty and
fellows at each site, and collected data. This has provided us with a considerable amount of
information about the functioning of the project. Below we summarize some of our most salient
findings.
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Recruiting efforts for the Center showed important new initiatives in Year Two, and the yield in new students was promising, but it still remains a central challenge
- The core courses for the doctoral program have now been established as the core of the mathematics education doctoral program requirements at each of the three universities, and important dialogue occurred among faculty across sites about the nature of the program
- Work on the doctoral program and courses has created opportunities for unprecedented dialogue among faculties at the three sites, the potential for richness in the knowledge base for doctoral students, and professional development of faculty, all of which contribute to the growth of a professional community
- The pre-service and in-service projects at each site were launched during Year Two, making good progress toward their goals in spite of various obstacles
- NSF fellows were given multiple and varied opportunities at each site to collaborate with faculty in all aspects of research and development on the site-specific projects
- Work on site-specific projects created collaborative opportunities among faculty and doctoral students on each campus, but more sharing across sites is needed to work toward the goal of creating a genuine multi-site professional community
- Efforts at formative evaluation are being accomplished to varying degrees throughout the complex layers of activity at the Center, most successfully in the doctoral program work, the on-site work at PSU and UD, and less visibly within the on-site work at UM.
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