The Rice University School Mathematics Project (RUSMP) was established in 1987 in order to provide a bridge between
the Rice University mathematics research community and Houston-area mathematics teachers.
RUSMP has received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the United States Department
of Education Eisenhower and Teacher Quality Programs, and from corporations, foundations and school districts.
The mission of RUSMP is to help teachers and administrators better understand the nature of mathematics,
the effective teaching and assessing of mathematics, and the importance of mathematics in today's society.
The RUSMP approach is founded on the belief that sustained instructional changes can best be supported through the development of professionalism among teachers and the creation of a network of teachers who have extensive knowledge of both mathematical content and pedagogy.
RUSMP's major goal is to increase the mathematical and pedagogical knowledge of Houston-area PreK-12 teachers and support them in implementing more effective mathematics programs.
RUSMP's specific goals are the following:
- increase the mathematical knowledge of Houston-area teachers,
- promote and model effective teaching and assessment of mathematics with active student involvement in the learning process,
- encourage the appropriate use of technology and manipulatives in the teaching of mathematics,
- provide strategies to actively engage struggling students, English language learners, and underrepresented minorities in learning mathematics,
- understand and promote research-based teaching and learning of mathematics,
- encourage classroom teachers to participate in professional organizations and in the mathematics/school reform process,
- provide a forum for communication and collaboration among and between teachers and university mathematicians and scientists,
- form a local mathematics education network to implement national, state, and local reform efforts in mathematics education,
- develop mathematics teachers' leadership capacity,
- create innovative curriculum in mathematics ,and
- advise developers of mathematics programs and curricula.
To accomplish its goals, RUSMP has developed an extensive array of programs, courses, and interventions available to teachers and administrators. These include long-term, intensive summer programs, after-school academic-year courses, personalized professional development for schools which may include workshops along with classroom support; and opportunities for networking across schools and districts.
All RUSMP activities are designed to support the development of teachers' professionalism by focusing on three major areas:
- solid knowledge of mathematics, including key concepts that students must master;
- awareness of a variety of approaches to instruction and their appropriate use; and
- the ability to plan and reflect collaboratively on instruction with other teachers.
The theory of action that guides RUSMP's work is based on research which has led to such documents as the NCTM Standards (1989, 1991, 1995, 2000) and the NRC's Everybody Counts (1989), Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics (2001), and Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology: New Practices for the New Millennium (2001). This research indicates that active, student-centered mathematical investigations, group cooperation, and alternative assessments (such as holistic grading and portfolios) are more effective in reaching today's diverse student population than teacher-centered and passive-learning methods which have dominated mathematics instruction in the past. All RUSMP programs address these needs.
RUSMP programs provide a model for teaching mathematics from a problem-solving approach. A problem-solving approach is especially valuable for teachers of underrepresented and underserved students. If students become good problem solvers in their mathematics classes, then they are likely to use these problem-solving skills in other academic areas. Giving underrepresented and underserved students these problem-solving skills provides a way to help them become more successful in school and ultimately contributes to lowering dropout rates.
RUSMP programs focus on teachers' competence in mathematics and pedagogical skills, while integrating and promoting the need for teachers to care about all their students, especially their ethnically diverse students. As Geneva Gay states in Culturally Responsive Teaching : Theory, Research, and Practice,
Teachers have to care so much about ethnically diverse students and their achievement that they accept nothing less than high-level success from them and work diligently to accomplish it… This is a very different conception of caring than the often cited notion of 'gentle nurturing and altruistic concern'.
According to Deborah Schifter's "Learning to see the invisible: What skills and knowledge are needed to engage with students' mathematics ideas?", teaching in this way means focusing on the mathematics students say or do not say, validating students' mathematical ideas, making sense of students' mathematical thinking - even when it is incorrect, and identifying the concepts students are studying.
Improving teachers' understanding of the concepts developed in RUSMP programs increases student understanding of them. Students with a sound understanding of these mathematical concepts are more likely to pursue the study of higher mathematics. The Educational Policy Improvement Center notes in its 2007 draft of Texas College Readiness Standards that "students who enter college having mastered [the college readiness standards] are likely to be successful in entry-level college mathematics courses and to be prepared for courses in related disciplines that require mathematical proficiency." This includes four years of instruction in rigorous mathematics coursework which is especially important for minority and female students and English language learners who are underrepresented in advanced mathematics courses.
Rochelle Gutiérrez demonstrated at the Plenary Session of the 29th Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education that all students, in particular English language learners, are empowered to be successful when teachers do the following:
- develop deep understandings of their students, from a personal and mathematical processing perspective;
- provide them continual and consistent access to group work where the language of mathematics and English develops; and
- maintain rigorous standards.
RUSMP provides teachers with experiences that align with these strategies.
All major RUSMP projects are subject to in-depth evaluation and research, which provide valuable information for continuous improvement of our programs. In this way, RUSMP contributes to the growing body of research relevant to reform in mathematics education.