Improving Student Achievement in Mathematics

Principal Investigators: Nadine Bezuk and Lionel “Skip” Meno.  Funded by Qualcomm. 

The Improving Student Achievement in Mathematics (ISAM) project was created to help improve students’ mathematics understanding and achievement by extending teachers’ content knowledge of mathematics and effective mathematics teaching in grades K - 12. The project staff works with district partners to design and implement programs to meet district, school, and teacher needs. ISAM currently has partnerships with several local school districts, including Lemon Grove School District, Ramona Unified School District, Sweetwater Union High School District, and the City Heights Educational Collaborative. ISAM is currently piloting online delivery of professional development, made possible in part by funding from Amgen.    More than 550 teachers participated in ISAM professional development activities during the 2007 – 08 school year, and nearly 400 teachers have earned the “Elementary Mathematics Specialist Certificate” offered by the project.  Recent research includes a study in the San Diego Unified School District that showed that students who had a teacher with the specialist certificate scored significantly higher on the California Standards Tests than students of teachers who did not have the certificate.

Read the SDSU Newscenter story on this project from 2009.