Strategic Initiatives

Our initiatives are designed to focus our work around and to bring our mission and vision to life. The initiatives are designed to serve our membership in multiple ways and below is a brief description of each initiative.

Initiative 1: Building Capacity

The Building Capacity Initiative is dedicated to diversifying our membership and leadership to ensure that NCSM equips & empowers a diverse education community. We will work closely with NCSM Professional Learning and Membership teams to ensure that our membership is inclusive and reflective of the mathematics community at large. 

Our focus is to build the capacity of our organization by honoring the background and expertise of current members and supporting new and emerging leaders.  Connecting mathematics leaders will be a primary focus of this initiative to ensure growth within our organization so that new leaders emerge to sustain the mathematics community well into the future.

In order to fulfill our mission and vision of NCSM as an organization where each and every mathematics leader belongs, inclusive of a variety of roles and diverse background experiences, the Building Capacity initiative is focused on organizational identity, agency, and sustainability.

Initiative 2: Humanizing Mathematics

This initiative has been established to build on the former Equity and Access initiative’s work of creating and promoting a common understanding around equity. We plan to provide resources that will help bold leaders identify and address inequitable math structures and practices. We support the diversification of our membership and leadership.

Mathematics is an inherently human endeavor. We do mathematics not only because it is useful, but because we are members of the human race. Because mathematics has historically been and currently is a dehumanizing experience for many students, NCSM believes strongly that we need to support leaders in creating equitable, humanistic mathematics spaces for all students. NCSM’s Humanizing Mathematics though Equity initiative is focused on boldly identifying, addressing, and remedying the systemic, cultural, and individual practices that are detrimental and minimize the mathematics experience for students across our mathematics education landscape. We strive to create awareness of inequitable and dehumanizing practices and to support leaders in understanding, exposing, and changing those practices.

Initiative 3: Professional Learning

NCSM is dedicated to providing high-quality, equity-focused professional learning to build capacity and empower mathematics leaders.  The Professional Learning Initiative includes specific goals and actions designed to provide accessible, focused professional learning experiences to support the needs of current and emerging mathematics leaders.  

The new professional learning offerings will include virtual coaching labs, an NCSM Fellowship cohort for new and emerging leaders, forums and other opportunities for member networking among members in like professional roles, and deeper professional learning extensions of the NCSM book series and website resources.  The professional learning initiative will also embed the core themes throughout existing offerings, including virtual seminars, Summer Leadership Academies, and Networking Nights.

Initiative 1: Building Capacity

The Building Capacity Initiative is dedicated to diversifying our membership and leadership to ensure that NCSM equips & empowers a diverse education community. We will work closely with NCSM Professional Learning and Membership teams to ensure that our membership is inclusive and reflective of the mathematics community at large. 

Our focus is to build the capacity of our organization by honoring the background and expertise of current members and supporting new and emerging leaders.  Connecting mathematics leaders will be a primary focus of this initiative to ensure growth within our organization so that new leaders emerge to sustain the mathematics community well into the future.

In order to fulfill our mission and vision of NCSM as an organization where each and every mathematics leader belongs, inclusive of a variety of roles and diverse background experiences, the Building Capacity initiative is focused on organizational identity, agency, and sustainability.

Projects and Goals

The goals of this initiative are to

  • broaden the definition of “leader” in mathematics education and develop new strategies for increasing the diversity of NCSM membership and leadership
  • cultivate connections among mathematics education leaders to strengthen member and organizational agency, and
  • ensure NCSM’s relevance and sustainability.

 

Initiative 2: Humanizing Mathematics

This initiative has been established to build on the former Equity and Access initiative’s work of creating and promoting a common understanding around equity. We plan to provide resources that will help bold leaders identify and address inequitable math structures and practices. We support the diversification of our membership and leadership.

Mathematics is an inherently human endeavor. We do mathematics not only because it is useful, but because we are members of the human race. Because mathematics has historically been and currently is a dehumanizing experience for many students, NCSM believes strongly that we need to support leaders in creating equitable, humanistic mathematics spaces for all students. NCSM’s Humanizing Mathematics though Equity initiative is focused on boldly identifying, addressing, and remedying the systemic, cultural, and individual practices that are detrimental and minimize the mathematics experience for students across our mathematics education landscape. We strive to create awareness of inequitable and dehumanizing practices and to support leaders in understanding, exposing, and changing those practices. 

Projects and Goals

The goals of the Humanizing Mathematics initiative are to

  • Make a space and shared understanding of equity and humanizing mathematics (website, definition, etc.), including resources to support classroom, site, district, state, and provincial mathematics leaders to boldly identify and address inequitable math structures and practices.
  • Coordinate with NCSM committees to plan and implement plans to diversify membership and leadership.

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Equity Defined

Equity is creating the conditions, structures, and policies necessary to ensure that all students have relevant, meaningful, and high-quality sets of mathematical experiences, facilitated through effective teaching and learning practices with high expectations and the support and resources needed to maximize student learning. (NCSM, 2020, p. 111)

Our goal is to create learning spaces where it is no longer possible “to predict mathematics achievement and participation based solely on student characteristics such as race, class, ethnicity, sex, beliefs, and proficiency in the dominant language.” (Gutiérrez, 2002, p. 153)

Initiative 3: Professional Learning

NCSM is dedicated to providing high-quality, equity-focused professional learning to build capacity and empower mathematics leaders.  The Professional Learning Initiative includes specific goals and actions designed to provide accessible, focused professional learning experiences to support the needs of current and emerging mathematics leaders.  

The new professional learning offerings will include virtual coaching labs, an NCSM Fellowship cohort for new and emerging leaders, forums and other opportunities for member networking among members in like professional roles, and deeper professional learning extensions of the NCSM book series and website resources.  The professional learning initiative will also embed the core themes throughout existing offerings, including virtual seminars, Summer Leadership Academies, and Networking Nights.

Projects and Goals:

The goals of the Professional Learning initiative are to

  • expand professional learning opportunities for embers to build and enhance coaching skills,
  • have multiple avenues for identifying emergent leaders within and outside of NCSM, specific methods for connecting with emergent mathematics leaders and support building capacity for mathematics leadership, and
  • provide opportunities to engage in deeper extensions of the NCSM book series and website resources.