The University of Louisville
National Research Center Relocates
Math-in-CTE Technical Assistance Newsletter
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education has awarded the University of Louisville
a 5-year, $20.5 million grant to create and manage a National Research Center for Career and Technical Education. This
grant, authorized by the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006, continues the Department’s com-
mitment to supporting high-quality career and technical education. The new National Center is charged with conducting
scientifically based research, dissemination, and technical assistance that successfully address the education, employ-
ment, and training needs of students in career and technical education.
The new National Center for Career and Technical Education at the University of Louisville has several partner institu-
tions that will work with them to achieve the goals of the grant. These partner institutions include the University of Min-
nesota, Cornell University, Clemson University, the Academy for Educational Development, the Southern Regional Educa-
tion Board, the National Association of State Directors of CTE, the Association for Career and Technical Education, and
the National Occupational Competency Testing
Institute.
The College of Education and Human Develop-
ment, in which the National Center is based, is one
of five Commonwealth Centers of Excellence of
Kentucky and the only such center in the field of
education. The College was recently ranked among
the top 50 of the 250 best public university colleges
of education in the country.
This grant is the second largest federal grant ever
awarded to the University of Louisville.
The University of Louisville
is a state-supported re-
search university located in
Louisville, Kentucky's larg-
est metropolitan area and the 16th largest city in the
nation. The University has three campuses.
The 287-acre Belknap Campus is three miles from
downtown Louisville and houses 7 of the university's 11
colleges and schools. The Health Science Center is situ-
ated in downtown Louisville's medical complex and
houses the university's health-related programs and the
University of Louisville Hospital. On the 243-acre Shelby cam-
pus in eastern Jefferson County are the National Crime Pre-
vention Institute and the Information Technology Resource
Center.
Under the leadership of its 17th president, James R.
Ramsey, the University of Louisville has become known for
teaching, research, and service to its community and the
advancement of educational opportunity for all citizens.
With an enrollment of 21,000, its academic programs attract
students from every state and from all over the world.
“We will be focusing our efforts on three major components of ef-fective education: engagement – reducing dropouts and increasing school and program completion; achievement – strengthening aca-
demic and technical knowledge and skills; and transition – increasing the movement of stu-dents from high school to postsecondary educa-tion and from education into the workplace. All of these will be done in a balanced agenda of high school and postsecondary research.”
Dr. James R. Stone, III Director of the new National Center
Volume 2, Issue 1
April 2008
From left to right: Arlene Gibson (Detroit) and
NRCCTE facilitators Vicki Mivshek and Mary Fudge.
Page 2 Math-in-CTE Technical Assistance Newsletter
It has been an exciting year for the Center with its relocation to the University of Louisville! I am pleased to report that, in the midst of the transition, Math-in-CTE technical assistance has continued to grow and expand in five states. New implementations were launched in North Dakota and the Detroit Public Schools in Michigan. Kentucky, Oregon, and the Miami-Dade County Public Schools each moved into a second year of Math-in-CTE with expansion into new content areas. Math-in-CTE facilitation teams also conducted Jump-Start initiatives in Las Vegas at ACTE and Ft. Worth, TX. These unique sessions provided teachers and state/district leaders with an opportunity to experience the model and build their team capac-
ity in advance of full implementation of the model.
If you are reading about Math-in-CTE for the first time, I encourage you to visit our website at www.nccte.org to learn more about this research-based curriculum integration model and the science behind it. Of course, the most compelling aspect of my work is hearing news from the states and districts we serve. In this edition of the newsletter,
we feature updates on Math-in-CTE technical assistance at sites from coast to coast. Read on and enjoy!
Dr. Donna Pearson, Associate Director
Math-in-CTE Teachers from the criminal justice program standing in front
of their maps: (left to right) Cassandra Ballard (math); Cynthia Moore
(criminal justice ); Marshall Thomas (math); and Tina Cushnie, Adriana
Gondalez, and Michael Tamburrino (all criminal justice teachers).
Miami-Dade County Schools first offered Math-in-
CTE in the 2006-2007 school year to teacher teams rep-
resenting agriscience and the culinary arts. Under the
direction of Dr. Rose Martin, the Miami-Dade County
Public Schools leadership team made a bold move in its
second year to offer professional development to teach-
ers in six new content areas, including: early childhood,
health, manufacturing, drafting, criminal justice, and
business and marketing. This year alone, more than 70
Miami-Dade teachers have participated in the Math-in-
CTE professional development workshops.
Mapping the math in the CTE curricula is the gene-
sis of any successful implementation of the integration
process. The criminal justice teacher teams, pictured
right, mapped the math in a full set of courses. Kudos to
these dedicated teachers!
Miami-Dade County Public Schools expands Math-in-CTE into six new areas
Detroit district leader, Harrison Duke, walks
through a math-enhanced lesson with accounting
teacher, Joyce Mitchell.
Detroit teachers enhance the math in business and marketing
Detroit Public Schools launched
the Math-in-CTE model this past year
in business and marketing, treating
the two as separate content areas.
While the two are frequently clus-
tered as one program, the content
across courses can vary greatly . The
Detroit teachers formed into two
separate groups, one in business
and one in marketing, in order to
identify a more common core from
which to identify math concepts and
develop sets of lesson plans.
Math-in-CTE: The Learning is Multiplying!
The Math-in-CTE model provided a conduit that allows the Detroit Public Schools Business and Marketing teachers to plan and work together to push
students to higher performance levels. I would like to thank the National Research Center for Career Technical Education team for providing a clear
vision of the Math-in CTE pedagogic framework and the CTE teachers for their high-quality work in developing rigorous lesson plans and for their
strong support during the 2007-2008 school year.
Arlene Gibson, Director of Career and Technical Education, Detroit Public Schools
Page 3 Volume 2, Issue 1
As is the case in many states and districts, the need to raise high school math achievement is significant. According to the Oregon De-partment of Education, at the end of 2004-2005, less than half of Ore-gon’s high school students met the state’s standard for math achieve-ment, while 60% of high school students met standards for science,
55% met standards for writing, and 53% met standards for reading. Of the 16 public school districts in Oregon, 10 districts reported 50% or less of their 10
th graders meeting the state math standard (http://
www.ode.state.or.us/).
This all-too-familiar story can be heard from educational leaders and agencies across the country. The issues are complex and require multiple strategies to solve. The research-based Math-in-CTE curricu-lum integration model, when implemented as it was tested, provides one such way for CTE teachers to help students improve their math
abilities.
Lane County ESD leaders, Kristen Gunson and Mark Wreath, origi-nally launched a Math-in-CTE pilot program in August 2006. With as-sistance from NRCCTE facilitators, they continued to lead the Oregon implementation over course of the current academic year. Teacher teams from the participating high schools brought diverse experi-
ences and circumstances to the project, as they expanded in the pro-
gram areas of manufacturing and business and marketing.
Under the direction of Tom Thompson, Oregon Department of Education, plans are underway to sustain and expand the use of the model into 2008-2009. The state also plans to collect and analyze data to demonstrate the impact of their integration efforts on teach-
ers and students alike. Stay tuned for more news from Oregon!
North Dakota launches new initiatives in agriculture and FACS Agriculture and family and consumer science (FACS) teachers and their math teacher partners met with facilitators throughout
the year to launch the Math-in-CTE model in North Dakota . Be-
cause both of these fields of study cover a wide array of courses
and content, the agriculture group focused on the power and tech-
nology courses and the FACS teachers enhanced the area of foods.
Last November, the CTE-math teacher teams began the task of
developing lessons in which the math naturally occurring in their
curricula was enhanced to show relationships of math concepts to
other areas, including how it may be portrayed on a standardized
test. During the follow-up workshops in January, each CTE-Math
team presented one lesson they had developed to the rest of the
group and received constructive feedback on improving the lesson.
Revisions were made and more lessons were created.
Math-in-CTE in North Dakota has been conducted as a re-
search project by Dr. Brent Young and Dr. Mari Borr of North Da-
kota State University. Both the CTE teachers and their students
were tested on their math abilities before lessons were constructed
or taught, and these groups will be tested on their math abilities
again at the end of the spring semester.
A hallmark of the North Dakota group was the considerable amount of math they mapped and subsequently developed into
lessons. Brent, Mari, and the state staff have been impressed with the effort the CTE and math teachers have put into this project.
They report, “Our teachers have been extremely dedicated, have created many exemplary lesson plans and have been a remarkable
group of professionals to work with!” Congratulations North Dakota!
Brent Young conducts a Math-in-CTE workshop with the
North Dakota agricultural teachers and their math teacher
partners.
Oregon promotes integration through Math-in-CTE
Oregon manufacturing teacher Steve Schilling (above) displays a teaching tool he created to support students’ understanding of measurement. Below: Experienced Math-in-CTE teachers like Steve served as “table captains” to answer ques-tions and provide support for new members throughout the second year of implementation.
National Research Center for Career and Technical Education
College of Education and Human Development
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292
502-852-4727
Newsletter editor: Jennifer Sawyer
Please email your pictures and stories to [email protected]
May 13-15, 2008 Math-in-CTE State Team Training, Louisville, Kentucky
May 16, 2008 Miami-Dade County Public Schools End-of-Year PD
May 17, 2008 Oregon End-of-Year PD
May 22, 2008 NACTEI Conference Presentation on Math-in-CTE , Drs. Pearson and Schneider
May 30-31, 2008 Detroit Public Schools End-of-Year PD
May 31, 2008 Kentucky End-of-Year PD
If you would like to receive more information about Math-in-CTE, or if you are interested in requesting technical assis-
tance, please contact Dr. Donna Pearson at: [email protected]
Upcoming Math-in-CTE Technical Assistance Events . . .
With the goal to sustain and grow the Math-in-CTE model in Kentucky, state leaders
have gone both deep and wide. Kentucky began its Math-in-CTE program two years
ago with CTE-math teacher teams in automotive and health.
Last summer, leaders invited back the original teacher teams for a second year of
professional development for the purpose of expanding the enhancements to multiple
courses across each of the programs. At the same time, they expanded the state leader-
ship team and implemented the model in two new content areas, manufacturing and
office technology.
Kentucky leaders have been collecting data throughout the year and hope to ana-
lyze them for impact on students’ math abilities.
Kentucky expands Math-in-CTE to manufacturing and office technology
The Kentucky leadership team presented
awards to the teachers at the end-of-year
celebration. From left to right: health
teacher, Donna Lynch, with Dr. Ronald
Spangler and Elizabeth Bullock.
A Kentucky teacher’s thoughts on Math-in-CTE:
Even though most of us already taught math in our classes, we did not coordinate and con-
nect the similarities of the two classes. [We] learned mostly math language in what we were
teaching. Learning the math terms made it easier to teach our students, and the students
understood it better and saw the connection.
Frank Brown, Auto Technology Instructor