Illinois Regional Center

Spring 2005

Use of IMP Grows in Chicago Public Schools
The Chicago Secondary Mathematics Improvement Project (CSMIP), which operates out of the Institute for Math and Science Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago,continues to use IMP as its main vehicle for effecting teacher change. Currently, CSMIP is working with the Chicago PublicSchools (CPS) to provide professional development for a wide range of schools that are implementing IMP. Most of these schoolsare utilizing IMP in conjunction with the “Algebra Problem Solving Course,” which is part of CPS’s Math and ScienceInitiative. The initiative involves schools using double periods of algebra and requires that at least half of the double period beorganized around high-quality instructional materials like IMP. Marty Gartzman, the education officer for math and science inCPS, writes: “In science and mathematics, research clearly indicatesthat instructional materials largely define what is taught and whatstudents learn. High quality materials, coupled with support, will improve instruction and advance student learning.”

IMP Teachers Achieve National Board Certification
Fifteen Chicago Public Schools teachers achieved national teachercertification in November 2004 in the certificate area of Adolescentand Young Adulthood Mathematics. Of these teachers, eight haveused IMP for a number of years. Congratulations to William Buchanan, Teresa Gach-Cannata, Anne Horn, Joanna Les, MarthaMulligan, Janet Ramakrishna, Elizabeth Runkel, and Yvonne Smith. In talking about the certification process, Bill Buchananreferences one of the teaching standards of the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards—a standard that promotescreating meaningful learning experiences for students: “IMP lessons such as Fair Dice in Year 2create such experiences andhelped me develop a teaching practice that met National Board standards.”

Illinois Regional Center Co-Director Retires to Hawaii
Anne Horn, a long-time teacher in the Chicago Public Schools(CPS) and the co-director of both the Illinois IMP Regional Center and the Chicago Secondary Mathematics Improvement Project, has retired from the Chicago public school system. Anne’s leadership in mathematics education in Chicago was unparalleled;she was instrumental in bringing IMP to Chicago and in organizing, directing, and delivering professional development opportunities for hundreds of Chicago-area teachers. Though she retired from CPS, Anne is still teaching—and still teaching IMP—only now in Hawaii! We will miss her leadership in Chicago.We wish Anne the very best in her “second” teaching career.

IMP School Recognized for AP Statistics Course
Northside College Preparatory High School in Chicago, a selective-admissions Chicago Public School, uses IMP as its core curriculumfor all students. The school offers Advanced Placement coursesbeyond the core IMP curriculum. In January 2005, the College Board recognized Northside Prep as having the top AP Statistics program in the world, as measured by performance on the APStatistics exam in combination with the fact that the school provides access to AP Statistics to a significant proportion of itsstudents. Beth Runkel, who teaches both IMP and AP Statistics at the school, spoke to the link between the two programs: “There isa great amount of overlap and reinforcement of the concepts between the IMP and AP Statistics curricula. For example, whenwe began studying probability this year in AP Statistics, the students were able to quickly move on to complicated binomialdistribution problems because they had learned about them in their third year of IMP.”

Spring 2004

Northside College Preparatory High School, now in its fifth year of existence, graduated its first full class of seniors in 2003. With a mathematics curriculum including only IMP, A.P. Statistics, and A.P. Calculus AB and BC, the school achieved notable success in its advanced-placement mathematics program. In May 2003, 84% of the 68 students who took the A.P. Calculus exams passed, and in A.P. Statistics, 79% of the 130 students who took the test passed. With a graduating class of around 270 students, these numbers reflect that a substantial portion of the student population took and passed advanced-placement mathematics exams in 2003.

An important goal of the mathematics department at the school, according to department chair Jim Lynn, is to promote genuine access to advanced-placement mathematics for all students.

According to the school’s two calculus teachers, the students are exceptionally well-prepared to handle the concepts of calculus. The teachers point to the preparation in understanding the relationships among tables, graphs, algebraic expressions, and contexts that are so well developed in the IMP curriculum. “Students almost magically come up with the most complete and original solutions and proofs I have encountered in my many years of teaching calculus,” says one teacher. He adds, “Every class period seems to be an entertainment arranged for my delight!”

As for A.P. Statistics, the three teachers agree that the three IMP statistics units, including “Pollster’s Dilemma” in IMP Year 4, provide an unparalleled grounding in important statistics concepts.

Spring 2002

The Illinois region continues to offer curriculum and pedagogy workshops for IMP teachers from the Chicago region and neighboring states. This year’s summer workshops will expand to offer pedagogical support to Chicago schools using another of the NSF-supported high school curricula. With this strategy we hope to expand the pool of like-minded professionals and gain support from the Chicago Public Schools.

Four Chicago all-IMP schools are experimenting with a staffdevelopment strategy called “lesson study.” Within a school, math teachers spend two hours discussing and preparing a single lesson. Then, one of these teachers presents the lesson to students, while the rest of them observe the students’ reactions. The observers focus on the impact of the lesson on student learning and write about the observations. After everyone in the group has read each others' writings, a two-hour follow-up discussion focuses on possible modifications to increase student learning.

We have a wonderful curriculum that already does much to increase student learning of mathematics. Lesson study is a way to make teachers more aware and reflective of the ways their students are learning, and to help them improve their teaching. It opens up the possibility of an intellectual exchange based on very practical considerations.

Spring 2001

The newest school in Chicago to select the Interactive Mathematics Program as the core secondary mathematics curriculum is the Young Women’s Leadership Charter School (YWLCS) of Chicago. Located on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology, YWLCS will eventually have a grade 6–12 college preparatory curriculum, offering students seven years of math, science, and technology, in addition to an integrated humanities experience. Currently there are seventy-five 9th and seventy-five 6th graders. The middle school students are using the Connected Mathematics Program that will eventually prepare them for IMP 1 in the eighth grade.

Margaret Small, a co-director of Chicago Regional IMP, is one of two co-directors of YWLCS. Her involvement with IMP for the past eight years serves as experience to support faculty and students as they become familiar with the problem-centered, integrated approach to mathematics characteristic of IMP. YWLCS will hire additional teachers for the next three years as the student body grows to 525 students.

As a public charter school, YWLCS has no admissions criteria beyond residence in Chicago. The initial student body represents the diversity of the Chicago Public Schools in the cultural and income range of students. There are 70% African American, 20% Latino and 10% European American students. Extra study sessions exist for students whose preparation is weak and who need additional support. Students have been surprised at the amount of writing involved in IMP and often wish that the teacher would “tell us how to do it.” As the students have become more experienced in the role of investigation in all learning across the curriculum, they are producing high quality POWs.

Fall 2000

A new school has opened in Chicago with the Interactive Mathematics Program as the only mathematics curriculum. Northside College Preparatory High School was built on Chicago’s northwest side as part of Mayor Daley’s initiative to keep middle class parents from fleeing to the suburbs in search of better schools. The school is headed by principal Dr. James Lalley who envisions a school of active learners engaged in problem solving and meaningful projects. Dr. Lalley regularly directs visitors to the mathematics classes to see what active learning looks like.

The school is on an ABC block with Wednesdays devoted to three-hour colloquia chosen by students in their interest areas. Classes meet twice a week for 95 minutes each. These blocks were sufficient this last year to complete six units in each of IMP 1, 2, and 3. About 40% of the freshman class enter at the level of IMP 2. Future plans include providing many sections of AP Statistics and AP Calculus. The entire teaching staff will prepare to teach all levels of IMP as well as an advanced placement course.

The public relations involved in making the single mathematics curriculum acceptable to the diverse parental and student communities was carefully planned. Parents and students were educated at information sessions, open house, family mathematics nights, and an eighth grade “IMP” style mathematics contest.

Chicago has a policy of creating schools that draw high-scoring students away from the neighborhood schools. As a result, the city provides a unique opportunity to see how IMP works in many different kinds of schools. IMP in Chicago has been successful at all the schools where administration and faculty supported the change necessary to implement standards-based curriculum. Northside College Prep provides another unique opportunity to show how well IMP prepares students for advanced placement courses.

Spring 1999

The Illinois Regional Center was awarded a grant from the McDougal Family Foundation to boost its leadership development program. The leadership program helps classroom teachers learn to support other, newer teachers. Teachers who are at least in their second year of teaching IMP will be conducting introductory workshops called "Engaging Students in Inquiry-Based Learning." Working with experienced staff developers, teams of three teachers will be recruiting participants, assembling boxes of manipulatives for participating schools, and planning workshops based on the activities and pedagogy of IMP. After this initial experience, teacher leaders will continue to help the Illinois Center offer the yearly curriculum workshops for developing IMP teachers.

Fall 1999

The Illinois Regional Center has had a very successful summer presenting workshops to teachers from 20 different Chicago schools as well as from a school in Cincinnati and one in Michigan.

Fifteen experienced IMP teacher-leaders worked to provide the staff development that began in February and lasted into August. Participant response was enthusiastic and resulted in new bonding among teachers from varied schools with a common interest in improving mathematics education. The groups from the IMP Year 2 and IMP Year 3 workshops went one evening on an outing to Navy Pier to celebrate a beautiful summer day in Chicago.

The Center has had a lot of new interest from Chicago schools. Four schools-Crane, Flower, Harper, and Manley-will be beginning partial or full implementation of IMP this fall. South Shore high school, which has had one enthusiastic teacher, Mark Jackson, using IMP for the last two years, now has all its teachers coming aboard after seeing the success Mark is having with his students.

There's been much interest—and requests for presentations—from Wisconsin school districts. Districts are apparently responding to the new state mathematics graduation exam and the need for new curriculum to prepare students for the content of this exam.

The Illinois co-directors and those from Minnesota have been asked to present the curriculum to committees of teachers. We've gone to Racine, Sheboygan, and Milwaukee. Most districts seem to be looking at two or more of the NSF-funded curricula. Wisconsin is in a good position to receive staff-development support, situated as it is between the Minnesota and Illinois Centers.

Milwaukee already has a strong IMP school, Grand Avenue, under the capable leadership of Mike Endress, known to many of you from the IMP teach listserve.

Spring 1998

Chicago Public Schools are going through a process of developing and implementing math standards and course exit exams based on the NCTM Standards and an integrated curriculum. This makes consideration of changing to a curriculum like IMP even more desirable. Other high-stakes tests, administered to determine the probation status of schools, are also based on a problem-solving and integrated approach to mathematics. The Illinois Regional Center, operating under funding from the National Science Foundation and other sources, is able to support high school mathematics departments in making the transition to a Standards-based teaching and assessment program using the Interactive Mathematics Program curriculum.

Future Commons High School on Chicago's south side has fully implemented the Interactive Mathematics Program. The school has a philosophy of project-based learning with integration across disciplines. Mathematics teachers Regeta Slaughter and Greg Redfeairn think that adopting IMP is an effective way to begin the process of building a coherent school-wide curriculum, while not compromising the quality and range of the mathematics program. And principal Constance Montgomery attributes the students' success in reading and interpreting Shakespeare to their IMP reading, interpretation, and problem-solving experience. As for Future Common's recent success on the Illinois Goals Assessment in mathematics and reading, IMP teacher Greg says "We'll take the credit for that, too!"

The Illinois Regional Center is currently working with 16 schools in Chicago ranging from traditional, large, full-service urban high schools to small, alternative public and private schools. Two Baker's Choice workshops this spring have also involved schools from northern Illinois and Indiana in an introduction to IMP.

Fall 1998

Illinois IMP completed a successful summer of workshops intended to introduce, launch, or further teachers' attempts to create a student-centered classroom environment using IMP. Teachers from 19 Chicago-area schools as well as from Arkansas, California, and Michigan participated in 30 or more hours of workshops.

One of the workshops lasted for several weeks and involved a morning laboratory class where teams of teachers taught their students The Game of Pig. Tesla High School, an alternative school for teenage mothers, had a particularly successful program. The two teachers there, Pete Catlow and Ivy Parker, inspired the young women to the highest attendance rate in the school's summer classes "by far," according to principal Dr. Mary Williams. Dr. Williams also remarked on the extraordinary engagement of the students during the entire three-hour daily class. The teachers were impressed with the level of mathematics, writing, and problem-solving achieved by their students in the IMP unit. Regional co-director Anne Horn has assembled a Tesla school portfolio displaying student achievements. She'll submit this portfolio as part of the report to the funders of the summer program, the Illinois State Board of Higher Education Eisenhower Fund.

Workshops during the 1998–99 school year include October 30 and November 3 on Overland Trail and Do Bees Build it Best?, January 16 and January 30 on Pit and the Pendulum and Cookies, and March 6 and March 13 on Shadows and All About Alice. For further information call Tony Freedman at (312) 355-0271.

Spring 1997

The Illinois Regional Center currently supports nine Chicago public high schools, enabling the mathematics teachers to create student-centered classrooms using IMP™. Among these is Jean Baptista Du Sable High School, an African-American, Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) environment.

Principal Charles E. Mingo envisions a mathematics program that makes problem-solving and the ability to communicate mathematical ideas possible for all Du Sable students. The mathematics faculty is able to implement this vision every day by:

• Presenting challenging mathematics that neither defeats the students nor undermines their self-confidence
• Engaging students in investigations and activities that make every day in math class valuable.

Fall 1997

The Illinois Regional Center is beginning work under a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to work with teachers in Chicago to move towards an NCTM Standards-based curriculum in their classrooms. The goal is to involve most of the teachers in a school's mathematics department in extensive inservice preparation and support. Schools wishing to be involved in this project may contact the Center. The Illinois Center also has a cadre of experienced IMP teacher-leaders who provide workshops and support to schools outside the city of Chicago.

Chicago's Foreman High School, now in its third year of offering the IMP curriculum, is providing IMP to its entire freshman class. Dr. John Garvey, principal of Foreman, sees IMP as a good way of providing an engaging, significant mathematical experience for the students in this racially and ethnically diverse high school on Chicago's northwest side. There are nine Foreman teachers who participated in the extensive inservice preparation and continue to be supported by the Illinois Regional Center staff.

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