Research being done at the University of Rochester’s Warner School of Education has received a $3 million federal grant.
That funding, from the National Science Foundation, will explore the challenges associated with providing mathematics education in middle schools in rural areas across the United States.
Jeff Choppin is a professor of mathematics education at UR and the principal investigator for this project which also includes the University of Idaho and Horizons Research, Inc.
Choppin said that there are disparities involving the resources for teaching math that are available in rural districts compared to some of their suburban peers.
“The rural demographic doesn’t get quite as much attention on the research side, and so I think that’s what drew their interest, is they really want very broad participation in STEM, and this is one way to do that,” said Choppin.
The federal funding for this program is part of an effort to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to students in grades ranging from pre-k to 12.
This research involves a national survey of 1,000 rural middle school math teachers and administrators.
Choppin said that UR researchers have already been working on finding ways to improve professional development for math teachers in rural districts.
“We’re studying what happens when we do that,” said Choppin who noted that they want “to see, what are the things that make that work really well in those settings and what are the things that make it a challenge to get the development capacity to what we’re calling a ‘rigorous mathematics instruction,’ which is a mathematics instruction that mirrors the highest achieving schools in the country and the world.”
The research team will also develop online professional development for some schools that want to improve their mathematics teaching and eventually look for ways to extend the impact of the project beyond its four-year timeframe.
