RAND Mathematics Study Group Members

With David Cohen and Brian Rowan, she is currently co-directing a large longitudinal study of whole-school reforms designed to improve instruction and learning in reading/language arts and mathematics in high-poverty elementary schools. The Study of Instructional Improvement seeks to develop a theory of instruction and of intervention that will develop knowledge of the processes and outcomes of instructional improvement. The research team is studying the course of four major whole-school reform programs in 120 schools over the next six years, tracing the interventions' efforts to make change, and the responses of school personnel, teachers, parents, and students. Teachers' learning, as well as students' opportunities to learn and their performance will be followed across the entire period of the study.

Ball is also studying the practice of elementary mathematics teaching. The Mathematics Teaching and Learning to Teach Project focuses on the mathematics that teachers need to know in order to teach mathematics well. Ball's principal collaborator on this work is Hyman Bass, a research mathematician. The research team studies classroom teaching and analyzes the mathematical entailments of the work, a sort of job analysis. This project also explores how records of practice (e.g., videotapes of classrooms, student work) can be used to support communication about teaching and learning among a wide range of stakeholders.

Ball's publications include articles on teacher learning and teacher education; the role of subject matter knowledge in teaching and learning to teach; endemic challenges of teaching; and the relations of policy and practice in instructional improvement. With Magdalene Lampert, she has recently published a book about the use of records of practice in developing new approaches to the curriculum and pedagogy of teacher education.

HYMAN BASS is the Roger Lyndon Collegiate Professor of Mathematics and Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Michigan. His mathematical research publications cover broad areas of algebra, with connections to geometry, topology and number theory. He has received the Cole Prize in Algebra from the American Mathematical Society, and the Van Amringe Book Award from Columbia University for a book that helped found the subject of algebraic K-theory. He has held visiting research and faculty positions at mathematical centers around the world, including Paris, Bombay, Rio, Cambridge, Stockholm, Mexico, Rome, Trieste, Hong Kong, Berkeley, and Jerusalem. He has lectured widely, in particular as a Phi Beta Kappa National Visiting Scholar. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Bass is president elect of the American Mathematical Society. He recently chaired the Mathematical Sciences Education Board at the NRC, and the Committee on Education of the American Mathematical Society, and he is President of the International Commission on Mathematics Instruction. During the past four years he has been collaborating with Deborah Ball and her research group at the University of Michigan on the mathematical knowledge and resources entailed in the teaching of mathematics at the elementary level. In all of this work, a major challenge has been to build bridges between diverse professional communities and stakeholders involved in mathematics education, both here and abroad.

Throughout his 30 year teaching career, he has taught students from a wide variety of backgrounds, in inner city schools as well as upscale suburban environments. He has worked with students on a variety of levels from third grade through high school, from remedial students to the most advance. He has also worked with pre- and in-service teachers. In addition to his classroom work, he has published numerous books and articles, including translations from French and Russian. Currently, he is an associate editor of "Notices" of the American Mathematical Society, a member of the Mathematical Sciences Education Board of the National Research Council, president of the American Regions Mathematics League, and director of the Research Science Institute, a summer program for high-ability high school students at MIT. In 1984 he received the Presidential Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics from the National Science Foundation, and in 1998 he received the Paul Erdos Award from the World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions.

JO BOALER is Associate Professor of mathematics education at Stanford University. She has been teaching and conducting research in mathematics education for the last seven years. The first five years at King's College, London University, the latter two at Stanford University, California. Jo is a former secondary school teacher of mathematics. She taught in diverse, inner London comprehensive schools, across the 11-18 age range. Her interests include teaching and learning through different mathematics teaching approaches, equity, and teacher education. She is author of the book 'Experiencing School Mathematics: Teaching Styles, Sex and Setting' that was published by the Open University Press in 1997 and won the 'Outstanding Book of the Year' award for education in Britain.

THOMAS CARPENTER is Professor of Curriculum and Instruction (Mathematics Education) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is Director of the National Center for Improving Student Learning and Achievement in Mathematics and Science, funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement of the Department of Education. His research integrates the study of the development of children's mathematical thinking, instruction that supports that development, and professional development that fosters instruction that leads to learning with understanding. His current research focuses on the development of algebraic thinking in the elementary school, in particular the development of generalization, justification, and proof. He is former editor of the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education and is currently serving on the National Research Council study panel The Mathematics Learning Study.

PHIL DARO is the executive director of the California Institutes for Professional Development and the director of research and development for the National Center on Education and the Economy. Mr. Daro's career has included his tenure as the director of the Office of Project Development with the California Department of Education, the executive director of the American Mathematics Project, and executive director of the California Mathematics Project. He received his B.A. in English from the University of California, Berkeley, with a minor in mathematics. A former high school math teacher, he received his teacher training at the State university of New Jersey, Trenton.

JOAN FERRINI-MUNDY is Associate Dean for Science and Mathematics Education and Outreach in the College of Natural Science at Michigan State University. Her faculty appointments are in mathematics and teacher education. She holds a Ph.D. in mathematics education from the University of New Hampshire and was a faculty member in mathematics there from 1983 - 1991. Dr. Ferrini-Mundy taught mathematics at Mount Holyoke College in 1982 - 1983, where she co-founded the SummerMath for Teachers program. She served as a visiting scientist at the National Science Foundation, 1989 - 1991. She chaired the NCTM's Research Advisory Committee, was a member of the NCTM Board of Directors, and served on the Mathematical Sciences Education Board. Dr. Ferrini-Mundy has chaired the AERA Special Interest Group for Research in Mathematics Education. Her research interests are in calculus learning and mathematics education reform, K-14. She served as chair of the Writing Group for the revision of the NCTM Standards 2000, which were released April 2000.

RAMESH GANGOLLI was born in India, and educated in India, England and the USA. He served as a member of the mathematics department at the University of Washington from 1962 to 1997. His mathematical research has been in the areas of probability theory and harmonic analysis. He has also maintained an active interest and participation in mathematics education in schools for over 30 years. He has served in various capacities within and outside the University of Washington: as chair of the mathematics department, as a member of NSF's Advisory Committee for the Division of Mathematical Sciences, as member of MSEB, as a trustee of the American Mathematical Society and so on. At present he is partially retired from his University position, and spends his time pursuing his interests in mathematics, music and mathematics education. He is the Principal Investigator of a local systemic change project funded by the NSF, involving nearly 600 mathematics teachers drawn from six school districts in the Seattle Metropolitan area.

ROCHELLE GUTIÉRREZ is Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education and in the Latina/Latino Studies Program, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her bachelor's degree in Human Biology from Stanford University, and her Master's and PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from The University of Chicago. She has been a summer fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, a Dissertation Fellow with the Spencer Foundation, a Post-doctoral Fellow with the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, and currently is a Faculty Fellow in the Bureau of Educational Research at the University of Illinois. Her research interests center on issues of equity for marginalized students, especially those living in the inner city. She is specifically concerned with the socio-cultural and organizational factors that play out in the teaching and learning of mathematics for Latina/Latino and African American students.

ROGER HOWE has been teaching and doing research in mathematics at Yale University for over 25 years. He has been involved in issues of K-12 mathematics education since 1990. He has served on MSEB, and on the board of directors of the Connecticut Academy for Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology. He was chair of the American Mathematics Society committee to provide input to the NCTM Standards 2000. He currently serves on several committees of CBMS and the NRC to study issues in mathematics education, and is consulting with commercial publishers to improve their elementary mathematics programs.

JEREMY KILPATRICK is Regents Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Georgia. He has edited or authored numerous publications on research and curriculum, has taught courses in mathematics education at several European and Latin American universities, and has received Fulbright awards for work in New Zealand, Spain, Colombia, and Sweden. He is currently directing a study of mathematics learning for the National Research Council. His research interests include mathematics curricula, research in mathematics education, and the history of both.

KAREN D. KING, PH.D., is Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education in the Department of Mathematics, Michigan State University. While studying at the University of Maryland, she conducted research on undergraduate teacher thinking. Her current research has focused on undergraduate student learning of differential equations, with a particular focus on the role of technology in supporting students' learning. Her future plans include merging these two lines of inquiry, to focus on undergraduate teaching of calculus, with attempts to coordinate the experiences of the different members of the classroom community, students and teacher. In addition, Karen has worked in teacher preparation, focusing on the content development of future teachers, with particular attention to the classroom experience of the prospective teacher as a model of Standards-based teaching.

JIM LEWIS is professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In 1998 his department won the University of Nebraska's University-wide Department Teaching Award as the outstanding teaching department in the four campus university system. His department also won a 1998 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. He was a principal investigator for the Nebraska Math and Science Initiative, Nebraska's NSF-funded SSI. Currently he is a co-PI for a grant to revise the mathematics education of future elementary school teachers at UNL. He is a past chair of the American Mathematical Society's Committee on Science Policy and currently serves on the AMS Committee on Education. He is chair of the Steering Committee for the CBMS Mathematics Education of Teachers Project and is co-chair of the NRC Committee on the Preparation of Science and Mathematics Teachers. He received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Louisiana State University.

KEVIN MILLER is associate professor of Psychology, Educational Psychology, and the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on the effects on thinking of symbol systems, such as number names, calendars, and writing systems. He primarily studies this question by comparing cognitive development of children who speak two very different languages, Chinese and English, and attempts to determine the role language structures play in cognitive development. He is a Fellow the American Psychological Association and his research has been supported by grants from the Spencer Foundation, National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Mental Health.

MARGE PETIT was appointed Vermont's Deputy Commissioner of Education on November 25, 1996 by Commissioner Marc Hull. Her role as deputy commissioner is to focus on standards, accountability and assessment. She brings both technical expertise and practical experience to the office of the deputy commissioner, and has used her expertise to assist in the implementation of Vermont's Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities and the comprehensive student assessment system adopted by the Vermont State Board of Education in November 1996. Previous to being named Deputy Commissioner, Ms. Petit was the assessment specialist with the Vermont Institute for Science, Mathematics, and Technology, a position she held since 1993. She has been a Vermont educator since 1968. Her last 12 years of teaching prior to working at VISMT were at the Cabot School, Cabot, Vermont, where she taught middle school math and science. Her experience includes working with students in the classroom, statewide and national development in both assessment and mathematics materials, state policy development, as well as working with teachers and administrators around Vermont. Ms. Petit was a summer writer and assessment consultant to the STEM (Mathematics) Project at the University of Montana, which wrote new mathematics curriculum for grades six through eight recently published by Houghton-Mifflin. She was a member of the national advisory board for the National Test in Mathematics and is presently a member of the Mathematics Advisory Board for the Achieve Middle School Mathematics Project. Her work in developing student assessment and classroom instructional practices has been cited in national books on education reform, including Reward and Reform: Creating Educational Incentives that Work and Teaching the New Basics: Principles for Educating Children to Thrive in a Changing Economy. Marge Petit lives in Fayston, Vermont with her husband, Richard. Her two daughters, Elizabeth and Christine, are both educators.

ANDREW PORTER is professor of educational psychology and director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has published widely on psychometrics, student assessment, education indicators, and research on teaching. His current work focuses on curriculum policies and their effects on opportunity to learn. Currently, he has research support from the National Science Foundation (director, National Institute for Science Education), ED's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (Consortium for Policy Research in Education), and ED's Planning and Evaluation Services (principal investigator, The Longitudinal Evaluation of the Effectiveness of School Interventions and the National Study of Title I Schools). He chairs ED's Advisory Council on Education Statistics and the National Academy of Sciences' Board on International Comparative Studies in Education. He is an elected member and officer of the National Academy of Education and president-elect of the American Educational Research Association.

MARK SAUL is a classroom teacher at the Bronxville Schools, a suburban district just north of New York City. Throughout his 30-year teaching career, he has taught students from a wide variety of backgrounds, in inner city schools as well as upscale suburban environments. He has worked with students on a variety of levels from third grade through high school, from remedial students to the most advanced. He has also worked with pre- and in-service teachers. In addition to his classroom work, he has published numerous books and articles, including translations from French and Russian. In 1984 he received the Presidential Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics from the National Science Foundation, and in 1998 he received the Paul Erdos Award from the World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions.

GEOFFREY SAXE is a Professor in the Graduate School of Education at UC Berkeley. He is known internationally for his empirical and theoretical contributions in areas of culture and cognitive development with a focus on children's mathematics. He has served as PI and Co-PI on federal and private foundation grants concerned with children's cognitive development and processes of teaching and learning. Sites for his research have included remote areas of Papua New Guinea, urban and rural Brazil, and urban schools and home settings in the United States. He has served as a member of various standing committees and task forces and review panels for private and public foundations, including the MacArthur Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Mental Health. He currently serves on the editorial boards for Cognition and Instruction, the Journal of Cognition and Development, Cognitive Development, the Journal of the Learning Sciences, and the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.

EDWARD A. SILVER is Professor of Education and Mathematics at the University of Michigan. Prior to assuming his current position in Fall 2000, he held a joint appointment at the University of Pittsburgh as Professor of Cognitive Studies and Mathematics Education in the School of Education and Senior Scientist at the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC). In the past he has taught mathematics at the middle school, secondary school, community college levels in New York, and university undergraduate mathematics and graduate level mathematics education in Illinois and California. At the University of Michigan, he teaches and advises graduate students in mathematics education, conducts research related to the teaching and learning of mathematics, and engages in a variety of professional service activities. He has published widely in books and journals in several research areas, including the study of mathematical thinking, especially mathematical problem solving and problem posing; the design and analysis of innovative and equitable mathematics instruction for middle school students, with a special emphasis on encouraging student engagement with challenging tasks that call for mathematical reasoning and problem solving; effective methods of assessing and reporting mathematics achievement; and the professional development of mathematics teachers. He recently completed his service as leader of the grades 6-8 writing group for the NCTM Principles and Standards for School Mathematics Project and as a member of the Mathematical Science Education Board of the National Research Council. He currently serves as editor of the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education.