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ACES (Algebraic Concepts for Elementary Students)

The ACES vision is to create and sustain Professional Learning Communities of teachers and administrators who work collaboratively through lesson study, seminars, and summer institutes to provide high quality instruction and continuously improve mathematics instruction. These improvements will result in significant gains in student learning and achievement among elementary and middle school students, gains that will be sustained in high school and beyond. By “high–quality math instruction” we mean mathematically accurate, engaging, focused on student learning; and balanced with regard to conceptual understanding, procedural skills, and problem solving. Teachers will develop a view of math as exciting and interesting and will gain a broad and deep understanding of the curriculum within and across grade levels. Through ACES, we will develop a distributed, classroom-based, cadre of grade-level leaders; classroom teachers who adopt math as their area of expertise and provide math leadership to their colleagues.

Project goals:

  1. Increase the mathematics understanding and achievement of (grades 4-8) students;
  2. Increase teachers’ mathematical conceptual content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and effective application of pedagogical skills;
  3. Cultivate replicable cultural and systemic changes that result in continuous improvement of mathematics instruction;
  4. Conduct empirical research to increase evidence-based contributions to the teaching and learning knowledge base.

Program components include:

  1. Intensive summer institutes
  2. Monthly seminars
  3. PLCs focused on use of lesson study
  4. Teacher collaboration time
  5. Parent activities
  6. After-school activities

Participants please visit the ACES Google Site here.