2013/2014

Theme: Shining the Light on Learning: A Vision for Mathematics Leaders

The Year of Leadership:

• Launched “Jump Start Formative Assessment” on the NCSM Website.
• Participated in the establishment of the “Mathematics Education Strategic Advocacy Summit” along with NCTM, AMTE, and ASSM.
• Held the 17th NCSM Leadership Academy “Mathematics Leadership at Work: Deepening Formative Assessment to Prepare for the Next Generation Summative Assessments” (June 30-July 2, 2014 at the Wyndham Riverfront Hotel, North Little Rock, AR).
• Published the leadership position paper, “Improving Student Achievement by Infusing Highly Effective Instructional Strategies into Multi-Tiered Support Systems (MTSS) – Response to Intervention (RtI) Tier 2 Instruction”.
• Distributed the joint White Paper of NCSM and COSN (Consortium for School Networking), “Mathematics Education in the Digital Age”.
• Established “Policies and Procedures for the NCSM List Serv”.
• Presented the 10th NCSM Leadership Webinar, “Jump Starting Formative Assessment: A Resource for Leaders”.
• Presented the 9th NCSM Webinar, “It’s TIME to Lead – A Call to Action for Mathematics Leaders”.
• Presented the 8th NCSM Webinar, “NCSM Great Tasks with TI Technology”.

• Teacher Evaluation and Teacher Quality: The focus is on approaches and tools that collect data and support sustained growth in teacher performance and quality. Consider how leaders can utilize instruments and evaluation practices to produce informative data and support areas to build on teacher skills to maximize student achievement.
• Formative Assessment Driving Instruction: The focus is on shifting teacher planning and daily instruction in ways that allow teachers to collect evidence of student thinking and then inform practice working both individually and collaboratively. This strand also includes a focus on strategies and techniques for helping students monitor and adjust their own learning.
• STEM and Career/College Readiness: The focus is on the increased attention to career and college readiness in the common core standards as related to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Consider the responsibilities of administrators and teachers in their efforts to work collaboratively with the school community to increase support for STEM-related courses and preparation for the future of today’s learners.
• Teaching and Learning in the Era of the Common Core State Standards and Assessments: The focus is on leveraging the CCSS to help teachers make the adjustments in lesson planning and instruction to improve student learning and thinking skills.
• Understanding and Teaching CCSS Standards Progressions: The focus of this strand is on helping teachers make sense of and build student’s mathematical understandings based on the progressions of the CCSS for whole number, fractions, measurement, algebra, geometry, data analysis, and statistics with examples for specific grade levels and implications for the surrounding grades. Sessions will also take-up implications for college/university placement and coursework, implications for professional development, research, curriculum development, and teacher preparation.