Middle College High School Consortium

Fall 2000

For the past three years, the Middle College High School (MCHS) Consortium has had a special grant to upgrade the teaching of mathematics in their consortium schools. The grant allowed schools to implement either IMP or CPM (College Preparatory Math). This special project is soon to come to an end. Nearly all teachers from the MCHSs participating in the grant have been fully trained in the first three years of IMP or the first three years of CPM. However, with the little bit of money left over from the grant, Bobbi Beinhacker, Coordinator for the grant, decided to do something a little different at the annual MCHS Consortium Summer Conference. This July, at the Harrison Conference Center on Long Island, New York, math teachers came together for advanced workshops focusing on continued professional growth in the teaching of mathematics. Nearly 30 teachers, both IMP and CPM, attended workshops on such topics as Alternative Assessments, Creating the Ideal Student-Centered Classroom, Improving Questioning Strategies, Using Rubrics to Convert Resistant Students into Self-Directed Learners, Using the Graphing Calculator, Math on the Internet, and Supporting Colleagues in Mathematics. Many of the workshops were led by Janice Bussey, IMP Consultant, and Chris Mikles, CPM Consultant, who have worked with the Consortium for the past three years. But new teacher leaders emerged to do some of the training. Myra Boime and Roger Butcher, IMP teachers from L.A. Southwest, ran the workshop on using rubrics to improve the quality of student work.

The most “gutsy” workshop by far was Creating the Ideal Student-Centered Classroom. Teachers had to bring a video tape of one of their math lessons. During the workshop, the group developed criteria for evaluating an ideal IMP classroom. They then designed descriptors of practice for each criteria in terms of what it would look like if a teacher met the standard, was below the standard, or exceeded the standard. The group finally used these descriptors to rate and analyze their own videotaped lessons. Gail Snider from Mott Middle College in Flint, Michigan commented, “I think one of the most helpful things was generating the criteria for our ideal class. In just doing that, I had mental pictures of myself and my classes—good and bad.” Cherrita Allen from Boyce Middle College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania came away from the workshop very excited. “This workshop was fabulous! I feel that it helped me to not only take a critical look at my classroom but also see other classrooms. I would like other teachers to know that it was an almost painless exercise that helped me tremendously. I was a little nervous about coming but I couldn’t imagine a better outcome. Try it and they will like it!” Janice Bussey, who conducted three workshops during the four days, was very pleased with the outcome. “Just because you've been through the initial IMP training doesn't mean you have all of those ideal teaching strategies down,” she commented. “This conference has been exciting! IMP teachers and CPM teachers are working together towards common goals. We are all perfecting our craft in teaching mathematics and getting our students to be the best they can be!”

Fall 1999

The Middle College High School Consortium, a collection of alternative high schools on community college campuses across the country, is entering the third year of its grant to improve the quality of mathematics instruction in the Consortium. IMP has been a part of that improvement process.

There are now five Consortium schools implementing IMP: Middle College High School at Los Angeles Southwest College in California; Mott Middle College High School in Flint, Michigan; Lowell Middlesex Academy at Middlesex Community College in Lowell, Massachusetts; Benjamin Mays Academy at Kennedy-King College in Chicago; and Boyce Campus Middle College High School at Community College of Allegheny County in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. In July IMP teachers from these five schools completed five days of training in July in Glen Cove, New York.

There are several features about Middle College High Schools which make them unique. These schools are alternative high schools. They generally have a student population of kids who were not successful in the traditional high school setting for a variety of reasons. Students are drawn to the middle college high school because they have smaller class sizes and a great deal of contact with and support from caring teachers. Many of these high schools offer special programs to facilitate a student's transition to college.

The schools in the Consortium implementing IMP also share a unique feature. They each have a college instructor who is teaming with a high school instructor in teaching IMP. As a result, the community college is learning more about reform mathematics and student-centered learning environments. The students will then have an easier time when they make the transition from their IMP mathematics classes to a more traditional mathematics class on the community college campus.

The unique features of the Middle College High Schools and their students present their own unique challenges. Networking, communication, and support is difficult when these schools are spread out across the country. The Consortium is now trying a new technique to bring Consortium teachers closer together. They are starting a new Consortium Web site.

IMP teachers can communicate with each other via the Web site, posing questions, sharing ideas, and exhibiting exemplary student work. More importantly, IMP students from the Consortium schools can have e-mail pen pals. They can work on Problems of the Week with students from another state and can share processes and strategies. They can also solve Problems of the Month in a competitive process. Feel free to visit our new site at www.mcconsortium.org.

Fall 1997

The Middle College Consortium, a Consortium of 23 Middle Colleges from around the country, received a grant from the DeWitt Wallace Reader's Digest Foundation to implement IMP in its member schools over the next three years. The Middle College High Schools are high schools on college campuses that serve at-risk students. The 23 middle colleges formed a consortium four years ago to seek funds to conduct joint staff development and implement an accountability project across the member schools.

This year a total of six of the middle college which are in Lowell, MA, New York City, Los Angeles, and Flint, MI, are implementing IMP. A teacher from each high school and a partner who is a professor from the host college are team teaching IMP 1 in the high schools. All teachers participated in staff development last summer at the Harrison House in Glen Cove, NY, and continue to communicate with each other via e-mail. They will come together again in February to continue to learn how to implement IMP and all are excited and enthusiastic. Adding a college mathematics professor to the team will smooth the transition for the students to college level mathematics and expose more college teachers to the curriculum materials and teaching strategies developed by IMP.

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