Mathematics Reform in a Minority Community: Student Outcomes

Abstract

This article reports on 3 years of mathematics reform that took place in 4 high-poverty minority schools in a large, demographically mixed public school system in the South. Comparisons were made with 2 demographically similar sets of schools on project-constructed interviews, items taken from the Third International Math/Science Study (TIMSS) data set, and Stanford Achievement Test scores. The reform project used teacher-training methods that originated from Project IMPACT (Increasing the Mathematical Power of All Children and Teachers), a project implementing intensive professional development in schools in Maryland. The project reported some modest successes, with school leadership and students' access to teachers trained by project staff as important components of project success. The project and its results are discussed in relation to Schoenfeld's (2002) ideas about the criteria for equitable and successful mathematics reform.