Dr. Robert Mayes, mathematics professor at West Virginia University, has received over $216,000 in funding to support mathematics education in Appalachia.
Mayes, who also serves as director of the Institute for Mathematics Learning in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, has secured the funding for the Appalachian Collaborative Center for Learning Assessment&Instruction in Mathematics (ACCLAIM). The recent grant brings the total amount awarded to the program to $739,420.
ACCLAIM links resources from higher education institutions in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee to build a mathematics infrastructure in the Appalachian regions of these states that will provide a model for other impoverished areas across the country. Its primary goals are to build mathematics capacity and expertise through advanced degree programs; job-embedded professional development for middle and high school mathematics teachers; research that connects mathematics and rural education; and improve the quality of mathematics teacher education programs and mathematics teaching at the middle and high school levels.
ACCLAIM performs these and other efforts as part of their Capacity Building, Teacher Development and Research Development initiatives.
The Capacity Building Initiative of ACCLAIM offers a doctoral program in mathematics education that allows its students to teach full-time while earning credits at one of five universities within the consortium.
Jeremy Zelkowski, senior lecturer in mathematics at WVU , is working toward his Ph.D. through the intensive program. A third cohort for the doctoral program is being recruited from rural areas across the United States, calling for 20 participants to begin in the summer of 2007.
Dr. Mayes earned his doctorate in mathematics education from Kansas State University. He became an assistant professor of mathematics at WVU in 1989 and later went on to develop a doctoral program in mathematics education at the University of Northern Colorado, where he also directed the Universitys Mathematics and Science Teaching Center. He returned to WVU in 2001 and is currently directing the Institute for Math Learning and teaching college algebra.
For more information about ACCLAIM , contact Dr. Mayes at 304-293-2011 or at rmayes@math.wvu.edu .