The New York City Mathematics Project (NYCMP) has been at the forefront of developing teacher leaders. Through Teacher Leaders for Mathematics Success, a Mathematics Project program funded by the National Science Foundation from 1999 to 2004, the NYCMP supported 280 K-8 teachers in over 20 low-income Bronx elementary and middle schools to improve their understanding of mathematics and how to teach it. Many of the participating teachers moved from the program into leadership positions within the New York City school system. In recognition of the NYCMP's expertise in leadership development, regions within the New York City Department of Education have enlisted the services of the NYCMP to support instructional leadership for principals, assistant principals, and coaches. In addition, the NYCMP just completed a publication, Teaching that Makes a Difference: Lessons Learned by the New York City Mathematics Project , which presents findings from a five-year teacher-research initiative funded by the Greenwall Foundation, focusing on classroom-based assessment in mathematics education. Initiatives like these build local capacity and contribute to national knowledge about professional development in mathematics education.

Teacher Leaders for Mathematics Success (TL=MS)

TL=MS involved 280 K-8 teachers in over 20 low-income Bronx schools. The participants benefited from NYCMP professional development for a period of three years. First, they were immersed in hours of mathematics study over the summer and on Saturdays. Then they applied their advanced knowledge through development of classroom curricula and, finally, they developed and learned strategies to share their knowledge and support other colleagues in their schools. The program, in turn, had a positive impact on students, with almost 90% showing increases in math performance, regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity or English-language skills. The TL=MS program demonstrates that it is possible to increase children's opportunities for success in mathematics when their teachers have opportunities to expand their content knowledge, develop more enthusiasm for teaching math, and use a range of instructional techniques which are both engaging and rigorous.

The success of the program was described in a longitudinal study conducted by a national organization, the Academy for Educational Development (AED) and in the February 16, 2005 issue of Education Week. Read the Executive Summary of AED's study of TL=MS.  Read the full Final Evaluation Report. 


New York City Leadership Development

In partnership with the New York City Department of Education, the NYCMP provides Principals Institutes in Mathematics to support administrators in their role in supervising mathematics. In these institutes, held at Lehman College for administrators city-wide, principals explore mathematics content, curriculum, standards, assessment and technology to develop a broad understanding of the teaching and learning of mathematics to provide effective leadership in mathematics in their schools.

Classroom-based Assessment in Mathematics Education (CLAME)

To address public concerns about teachers' professional development and student performance in mathematics education, in 1997 the NYCMP developed a new dimension for its work with teachers. The NYCMP believed that teachers would be better prepared to address the challenges of providing instruction in classrooms with a diverse range of students by encouraging them to examine closely the mathematical thinking and products of individual students. The proliferation of standards-based mathematics curriculum in New York City also provided a unique pathway for this kind of work. With two cycles of funding from the Greenwall Foundation (1997-1998 and 2000-2002), the NYCMP initiated CLAME, a special teacher research program. The results of that endeavor have been compiled in a publication, Teaching that Makes a Difference: Lessons Learned by the New York City Mathematics Project (2005), currently in press.

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