Cambridge Advanced Learning Association
Providing community, resources, and advocacy for families
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012
Math Grant Meeting
Location:CPS District Office, Thorndike Street, Cambridge
In attendance:Barbara VanSickle, Mark Healy, Candyce Dostert, Lenore Cowen, Freedom Baird
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Meeting Notes, excerpts:
LC: Idea is to get kids prepared for STEM majors in college, starting in middle school. As an undergrad I worked in a Breakthrough Cambridge type program at Yale. Brought New Haven public school kids onto the Yale campus. My thought is to focus on supporting math in the middle schools, because that’s the missing background piece that prevents students from thriving in STEM classes and majors in college.
MH: We’re looking at how to get kids excited about math; keep them engaged; we need to do that, CPS doesn’t produce a lot of mathematicians. Interested in making a connection to the community; making math come alive for kids in real world occupations.
MH: What we’re doing now: adopting the Common Core standards, which means “for this classroom time period you’re doing this work”. Then there’s an enrichment piece. Question is, what will the curriculum for that be?
MH: Working with Cambridge School Volunteers (CSV) will be good because the infrastructure is there.Next steps: Organize teachers to think about enrichments, math clubs; they’ll be looking to outside organizations; We can connect them to a list of people and organizations. If you have resources, you can send them to me. We’ll look at and talk about the resources first. We’ll develop the list of resources first, then talk about the money piece.
MH: Have identified six people in the math department, 3 to work on enrichments, 3 to work on support. Will pay them. Andrea Plate, a Baldwin teacher, will be the teacher in charge.
MH, LC, CD, BV, FB summary: How CALA can help with fundraising. The overall CPS approach is:
-for grants-related work to be focused on collaboration with CPS teachers and with an understanding of the CPS middle school curriculum
-to collaborate with people who are willing to work with CPS, with the math infrastructure Mark and the team are building, rather than superimpose curriculum, etc.
-to tap into resources brought forward by members of the community
-to build good relationships with community members, with a focus on student learning
-to work together to keep ensuring we are meeting the needs of all students
-to eventually involve CPS's new Academic Challenge Program Manager in fundraising and other efforts