Teaching Teachers

Many great universities and colleges in the U.S. began as teacher training schools, and UCLA is no exception. Here teacher training and letters and science education began around the same time, early in the last century. When the new "Southern Branch" of the University of California opened on Vermont Avenue in 1919, its primary academic unit was the Teachers College, with 1,125 students. In 1923 the Southern Branch awarded its first diplomas-26 Bachelor of Education degrees. That same year saw the founding of the College of Letters and Science, which granted its first degrees two years later. So the College and the teacher training program have coexisted for almost 80 years of UCLA history.

In recent years, however, the College of Letters and Science and the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (GSEIS) recognized that peaceful coexistence was not enough, that teacher education needed improvement and revitalization, especially in the fundamental area of mathematics. So these two formidable academic units joined forces to extend teacher training beyond the university, reaching out to build unique partnerships with school districts and teachers. In 1980, UCLA's Math Department established the Visiting High School Mathematics Teacher Program, an idea formulated by Professor Phil Curtis, now an emeritus faculty member, and supported by then-department chair Ted Gamelin. Each year an outstanding math teacher from a high school in greater Los Angeles is invited to the campus to teach courses and participate in areas of the math program that interface with secondary education. Candidates for this unique program are experienced teachers who possess a master's degree, have taught calculus, and have demonstrated leadership skills. The visitor teaches precalculus and several math courses in UCLA's teacher training program.

The Visiting High School Mathematics Teacher Program has created a strong bond between UCLA's Math Department and high school math education in Southern California. This link enables UCLA math faculty to keep abreast of developments in high school education and, at the same time, provides local high school math teachers with vital information about current university mathematics programs. The growing cadre of past and current participants has developed into an active network of math teachers who meet annually, participate in Math Department projects and programs, and advise UCLA's math faculty about important issues in mathematics education. "Most of these people go back to their schools," notes Gamelin, who remains actively involved in the program. "But at some point they may leave and do bigger things." In fact, one early participant, Susan Håkansson, is the current executive director of the California Mathematics Project, and Jody Priselac, another former visiting teacher, is director of GSEIS's Center X, home to all of GSEIS's outreach programs. Santa Monica High School math teacher and GSEIS faculty advisor Heather Calahan, who spent the 2001-2002 school year teaching at UCLA, says enthusiastically, "Teaching at UCLA allowed me to experience an academic environment that gives the educator time to interact with colleagues and grow academically."

In 1983, UCLA became one of the original sites for the innovative, state-funded California Math Project, which is "one of the main professional development programs in the state," according to statewide faculty advisor Ted Gamelin. Today the project has 24 local sites around California, including the one housed in Center X. These sites mount special programs and institutes for "teacher-leaders," those who clearly demonstrate leadership skills or potential. The sites also form partnerships with local school districts to help underperforming schools improve the quality of education. Statewide the California Math Project has offered meetings and conferences for teachers on subjects ranging from English language learners to lesson planning. In the 1990s, the project moved its state headquarters to UCLA's Math Department.

More recently, UCLA has become the sponsor of two ground-breaking math professional development programs for K-12 teachers. These are the Math Content Programs for Teachers (MCPT) and the LUCIMATH Project. A grant from the state of California got the MCPT under way in 1999, headed by Dr. Shelley Kriegler, who had been teaching Math for Elementary School Teachers in UCLA's Math Department since 1993. In the first year, about 50 teachers attended classes at five sites around the Los Angeles area. Notes Kriegler, "We had some very good successes in the first year; external evaluations showed that the teachers were really learning something." Today, in each academic quarter, approximately 350 teachers from 20 districts take the evening classes, which are targeted toward elementary and middle school teachers who feel underprepared to teach mathematics or who want to earn a supplementary authorization to teach mathematics in middle school through grade 9. Classes are held in local school districts and are taught by instructors who have an undergraduate degree in math, plus a master's degree, and are approved by UCLA's Math Department. Many of the instructors have come out of the California Math Project's professional leadership development program. The classes are small and "very interactive," according to Kriegler. "The teachers engage in activities that have a particular mathematical goal; it might be a lesson that they can teach to their students, but it's been kicked up a couple of notches." Kriegler emphasizes that although teachers often adapt what they've learned in MCPT classes for their own students, "it's a math class, not an education class."

Teachers are attracted to these courses for a number of reasons. Classes are offered at times and locations that are convenient within their teaching schedules. The state pays class fees, and course materials are free of charge. In addition, as Ted Gamelin explains, "Teachers' salaries depend on their seniority and the number of courses or credits they have. That's one of the things that motivates them to take these courses."

Participants have responded enthusiastically, writing glowing comments in the "Final Reflections" sections of their class notebooks. A sixth-grade teacher from Lennox Middle School wrote, "I became a better math teacher through this class. I also became a better math student." An LAUSD teacher of grades 3-5 wrote, "I have never felt inadequate teaching math, but now I realize how much I really didn't understand about mathematics. My students are the real beneficiaries of what I have learned this semester."

The curriculum and materials developed for the MCPT have served as the basis for the larger LAUSD/UCLA Collaborative Institutes in Mathematics, or LUCIMATH, which was established in 2001 with funding from the University of California Office of the President (UCOP). Kriegler, who is also one of the directors of LUCIMATH, explains, "Some of the state folks started to take notice of what we were doing in the MCPT. Because of the success we had had in the Math Department and the Education Department-the collaboration that we had been able to achieve-the LAUSD and UCOP asked us to take on this project of large-scale professional development for teachers." Kriegler notes that the extent of cooperation between Math and Education at UCLA is unique. "That's what sets our program apart," she says. "We have this amazing collaboration and respect for each other's abilities. We've got so many people with so many strengths, and we're able to draw on those strengths in an efficient way." Headed by both Kriegler and Dr. Jody Priselac, director of Center X, LUCIMATH is a large and growing program designed to strengthen teachers' understanding of mathematics, enhance their instructional strategies, and familiarize them with newly adopted textbooks. According to Gamelin, who supports LUCIMATH within UCLA's Math Department, in its first year LUCI trained some 150 instructors to conduct the programs, and then presented the classes to about half of the 12,000 K-2 teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District. "Subsequently these materials have been used outside of LA Unified, and we're developing materials for grades 3-4 teachers, and grades 5-7 teachers," says Gamelin.

Recently Kriegler and her staff traveled to Fresno. "We took a little LUCI road trip," she grins. "We rent a truck from UCLA Fleet Services and we gather up the boxes of materials, and take our instructors, and offer the same kind of programs in other locations that we offer here. We train the instructors and then we continue to work with them, to support them."

So, after 80 years of growth together at UCLA, how does the future look for these dynamic collaborations between the College and the GSEIS? Both Ted Gamelin and Shelley Kriegler are confident that the outlook is bright. Kriegler states, "As long as we can get funding, we know what to do to attract teachers." Gamelin points to recent improvements in LAUSD elementary school math scores: "The increase is undoubtedly due to many things, including focus on standards-based education, new textbooks, use of math coaches, and smaller class sizes. But the fact that the biggest spike occurred at precisely the grade level where the LUCI program has been focused tends to indicate that the program is a success."

Clearly, both UCLA and California's public schools-teachers as well as students-can only benefit from the university's unique mathematics education programs.

UCLA Math Programs for Teachers