The MSD of Pike Township received $ 296,830 to meet the objectives of the grant.

The Algebra Readiness:  It All Adds Up! grant is a comprehensive professional development program in mathematics to improve the quality of mathematics instruction in algebra and algebra readiness in grades 4-9 to enhance student achievement in algebra.  Teachers will participate in a summer mathematics institute and follow-up monthly workshops.  They will also become teacher-leaders in their schools by mentoring, coaching, and model teaching.  These activities are designed to be sustained, intensive, classroom-focused and aligned with standards and math curriculum.

The Algebra Readiness:  It All Adds Up! grant will begin with a summer institute in June of 2007 with the follow-up monthly workshops during the 2007-2008 school year.  This same timeline will be repeated in the summer of 2008 and 2009 for a new cohort of teachers.

• Teachers of mathematics (grades 4-9) will increase their participation in content-based professional development activities.
• Teachers of mathematics (grades 4-9) will increase their content knowledge of algebra and algebra readiness.
• Teachers of mathematics (grades 4-9) will increase the use of research-based instructional practices in algebra and algebra readiness.

• Indiana University in Bloomington will provide faculty to implement the summer mathematics institute and will provide support for the follow-up workshops.
• Indiana Mathematics Initiative will provide staff to support planning the summer institutes and follow-up workshops along with leadership in coaching and mentoring.
• CIESC will provide high-quality professional development in algebra and algebra readiness.

During the first week of June, twenty-three teachers will participate in a summer institute led by faculty from Indiana University.  The summer institute will focus on connecting content to classroom curriculum and instruction.  Teachers will engage in activities to investigate the relationships between their classroom content and skills necessary for success in algebra. These activities will include learning about some of the big ideas in mathematics such as multiple representations and proportional reasoning.  Some specific topics would be the integration of algebra and geometry and fraction/decimal knowledge and how it relates to algebra readiness.  Finally, teachers will produce and share lesson plans and discuss articulation between grades 5-9.