Curricular Options in Mathematics Programs for All Secondary Students is a secondary school implementation project funded in part by the National Science Foundation. COMPASS assists schools, teachers, administrators, parent groups, and other community members and constituencies interested in improving secondary school mathematics opportunities and experiences for their students by providing information and assistance with the implementation of five comprehensive secondary standards-based mathematics curricula.

The K-12 Mathematics Curriculum Center funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and located at Education Development Center (EDC) helps guide school districts as they build a shared vision of the goals for a K-12 mathematics program. The Center provides a variety of services and products to assist school districts around the country as they select and implement standards-based mathematics curricula. The project focuses on district needs related to the selection and implementation of, and transitions among three elementary, five middle, and five high school NSF- sponsored mathematics curriculum programs. The K-12 Center offers resource guides, discussion cases, a series of seminars, and other resources to help facilitate discussion and decision-making among various stakeholders within a district.

The Elementary Center is a collaboration between the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications (COMAP) and the three NSF-supported elementary mathematics curriculum projects, Investigations in Number, Data, and Space (TERC), Math Trailblazers (University of Illinois at Chicago), and Everyday Mathematics (University of Chicago). The aim of the collaboration is to promote the wide-scale implementation of reform elementary mathematics curricula. To this end, four implementation centers will be established, one national center and three curriculum-specific centers. Activities at each center will include: i) teacher enhancement and leadership development, ii) public awareness and information, iii) consulting with schools and districts, and iv) evaluation. (UNDER REVIEW)

CESAME's NSF-funded Statewide Implementation Program (SIP), http://www.neu.edu/cesame now in its fourth year is designed to demonstrate how districts can successfully implement specific standards-based mathematics and science curricula. SIP reviews, identifies and showcases exemplary curricula. After a competitive proposal process which culminates in a contractual agreement, SIP provides districts with multi-year funding, technical assistance, professional development guided by curriculum developers, and linkages to statewide and national reform efforts. SIP also conducts research which seeks to identify the elements of effective models for successful implementation. Through frequent liaison contact, SIP continuously works to make districts accountable for collecting site data and focusing on achieving a sustained high quality implementation.

Other NSF Sponsored Standards-based Mathematics Curricula Projects

Integrated Mathematics, Science, and Technology is a two-year middle school program designed to be taught by seventh and eighth grade teachers from each of the three disciplines. The seventh grade program includes four modules in the Bio-related Technologies and modules related to Manufacturing and Forecasting. The eighth grade program includes four modules entitled Animal Habitats, Human Settlements, Systems, and Communication Systems. Although there are separate activities for mathematics, science, and technology (M/S/T), the activities focus on the same key concepts and are coordinated so that the students readily see the relationships among the disciplines.

Visual Mathematics is a comprehensive, four-year curriculum being developed for grades 5-8 by The Math Learning Center with support from the National Science Foundation. In each course, students explore topics from geometry, measurement, algebra, probability, statistics, numeration, number theory, computation, and estimation. Mathematical ideas resurface regularly. Technology is used appropriately. A Visual Mathematics classroom draws its energy from student-driven exploration. Models and manipulatives provide the context for explorations of complex problems involving important mathematical relationships. Group discussions and projects create a community in which each member's ideas are valued and respected. In this community of mathematicians, students enjoy a growing ability to construct their own understanding and to communicate their reasoning.