About
The UCSB Mathematics Project is a professional development program in mathematics instruction for in-service K-12 teachers, primarily serving Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. We are one of nineteen sites of the California Mathematics Project, a state-funded program to develop and enhance the content knowledge and instructional strategies of California's teachers. The work of the CMP is aligned with the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics and the California Mathematics Framework. The CMP is part of a larger network of professional development programs, the California Subject Matter Project.
The goals of the UCSB Mathematics Project are to provide teachers with rigorous sense-making experiences in mathematics, to guide them in using engaging teaching practices in their classrooms, to ensure that they are providing equitable and accessible instruction for all of their students, and to encourage them to be leaders in their professional lives. We do this at a series of workshops that take place during the summer. We invite all teachers to learn and grow in their understanding of mathematics and teaching practices by participating in our project.
California Mathematics Project Core Values Statement
Ongoing access to an engaging and humanizing mathematical education—a socio-cultural, human endeavor with emphasis on communicating, connecting, and valuing mathematical ideas to describe the world—is a universal right, central among civil rights.
- All students must be provided with a mathematical education that allows them to make sense of the world quantitatively and to appreciate their own power to reason. This includes making sense of mathematics through active engagement in problem solving and grappling with increasingly challenging tasks in an interactive way, where challenging and critiquing the thinking of others is safe and valued.
- All teachers must have their own significant sense-making experiences in mathematics to provide similar experiences for their students. All teachers have the potential to be leaders and a responsibility to advocate for rigorous and relevant mathematics education at all levels. Above all, they must help their students develop an understanding that mathematics is coherent, rooted in cultural beliefs and values, and doable.
California Mathematics Project Goals
- Provide teachers with effective instructional strategies to ensure their students develop a deep, robust understanding of mathematics.
- Provide teachers with significant sense-making experiences in mathematics.
- Develop teachers' leadership potential to advocate for and deliver rigorous and relevant mathematics education at all levels.
- Assess the impact of professional development.