The Service, Teaching and Research (STaR) Program is an induction program for early career mathematics educators working at institutions of higher education. Since 2010, the STaR program has supported eight cohorts consisting of over 270 early career mathematics educators from over 100 different higher education institutions.
As part of its mission to support the teaching and learning of mathematics, the CPM Educational Program (a non-profit professional development organization) has joined with AMTE to financially support the STaR Institute. This effort reflects a joint commitment toward future mathematics educators, who arguably will have a key role in improving future mathematics teaching and learning for all students.
In addition to financial support for the STaR program, CPM has also started offering free access to curriculum materials for university faculty and students to aid in their work. For example, CPM offers free access for 18 months to the entire set of textbooks via the online electronic book (“ebook”) system. This gives prospective teachers access to 21 courses, including middle and high school comprehensive online textbook materials (both single-subject and integrated) and corresponding digital tools (such as DESMOS tools). This access is offered to enable prospective teachers to access problem-based reform curriculum in their student-teaching placements, which unfortunately often have limited access to strong curriculum materials. The licenses are granted for 18 months to enable access to reform curriculum for new teachers throughout a one year teacher education program and partway into their first year of a professional teaching job. We hope that this support can enable student teachers to develop practices with rich curriculum materials that reflect the vision for teaching and learning that are consistent with research-based practices. (See http://cpm.org/university/ for more information.)
In addition, researchers who wish to include CPM curriculum materials as part of their research study can request access to free student and teacher materials - either in textbook form or through access via the ebook.
Finally, CPM is in its third year of funding external research grants that advance the field of mathematics education. Funding opportunities include fellowship awards for doctoral students and research grants for faculty in mathematics education and related fields.
Here are some comments shared by some recent STaR participants about their use of CPM materials:
- "Thanks again for sending us the CPM materials. We use them in our secondary math methods courses as a source for rich tasks, and material for use in planning lessons. Having access to them made a big difference in our ability to provide high quality curriculum to our students.” Jenny Ruef, University of Oregon
- "Thank you for sending the CPM materials. I have hard copies of the middle school materials on a shelf in my office. I am currently teaching a middle school math content course for both current and future middle school math teachers. We often work on tasks that require the current teachers to bring their own curriculum materials. The future teachers (undergraduates pursuing a math minor for teaching) do not have their own materials so they work from the CPM books.” Alison Marzocchi, California State University, Fullerton
- "I used the materials in my methods class as examples of complex instruction. The students were able to identify the elements of the CPM curriculum that facilitated complex instruction, as well as evaluate the cognitive demand of tasks and how to maintain student engagement as designed. Exposure to high-quality materials for pre-service teachers is invaluable at this stage in development in terms of setting expectations of what mathematics curricula can be and promote in a mathematics classroom community.” Maisie Gholson, University of Michigan