November 24, 2009
Director, Grantmaking Programs & Communications
Koret Foundation
33 New Montgomery, Suite 1090
San Francisco, CA 94105
Dear Sir or Madam:
On behalf of the American Institute of Mathematics (AIM), I am pleased to submit this letter of
inquiry to the Koret Foundation regarding funding for the AIM Math Teachers’ Circle. The AIM
Math Teachers’ Circle, founded in 2006, provides high-quality professional development to
middle school math teachers in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties through problem-solvingfocused sessions led by area mathematicians. We are seeking full or partial support from the
Koret Foundation for an intensive 4-day residential workshop for 20 middle school teachers
who will be joining the Circle in Summer 2010. Many of these teachers will go on to participate
in the Circle for multiple years, building long-term professional relationships with colleagues
and mathematicians and gaining the knowledge and confidence to bring richer mathematical
experiences to their students.
The $24,800 total cost of the workshop includes lodging and meals for the teachers, workshop
presenter stipends, a facilities fee, workshop coordination, and project evaluation. The
workshop will take place July 6-9, 2010, and the requested funds will be spent between
February 1, 2010, when teacher recruitment will begin, and September 1, 2010, when project
evaluation will be completed.
About the American Institute of Mathematics (AIM)
AIM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization located in Palo Alto (Federal ID #94-3205114). The
organization was founded in 1994 by area businessmen John Fry and Steve Sorenson, longtime
supporters of mathematical research. In 2002 AIM became one of only seven mathematics
institutes in the U.S. supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). AIM’s mission is to
promote focused collaborative research in the mathematical sciences and advance the frontiers
of mathematical knowledge through sponsoring research projects and workshops and
encouraging collaboration among mathematicians at all levels. AIM’s outreach efforts also
center on developing collaborations, in this case between mathematicians and teachers,
students, and the community.
2
About the AIM Math Teachers’ Circle
In 2006, AIM started the AIM Math Teachers’ Circle to help address the growing need for
improved math education at the middle school level in the Bay Area. Research shows that
professional development programs with a strong content focus translate to more effective
teaching and higher student achievement, and that the students of teachers who receive
training in higher-order mathematical thinking skills surpass their peers on national assessment
tests. The AIM Math Teachers' Circle combines strong content with a focus on problem solving,
resulting in a unique professional development experience for in-service teachers. Long-term
participants have cited a number of positive outcomes, including increases in confidence,
content knowledge, and involvement in math-related extracurricular activities. For example,
two have started after-school math clubs for their students, and two have attributed winning
“District Teacher of the Year” to their participation.
Around 40 of the approximately 400 middle school math teachers in Santa Clara and San Mateo
Counties have already participated in sessions of the AIM Math Teachers’ Circle, and every
subsequent summer workshop brings an additional 20 to the Circle. We estimate that by the
2014-2015 school year a third of all middle school math teachers in the two counties will have
attended a summer workshop and that up to 15,000 area middle school students will be taught
by current or past Math Teachers’ Circle participants. Thus, the program has a significant and
increasing impact on middle school education in the Bay Area.
The AIM Math Teachers' Circle is the founding member of the national Math Teachers' Circle
Network, which is also organized by AIM and has received support from the NSF, the National
Security Agency, the American Mathematical Society, and the Mathematical Association of
America. With the support of AIM Executive Director Brian Conrey and Director of Special
Projects Brianna Donaldson, and significant commitment from several area mathematicians
(Professor Matthias Beck, San Francisco State University; Professor Tatiana Shubin, San Jose
State University; Dr. Thomas R. Davis, co-founder of Silicon Graphics; and Mr. Joshua Zucker,
Julia Robinson Day Organizer, Google), the Math Teachers’ Circle Network has so far succeeded
in starting 15 Circles in 13 states, with an additional 14 Circles in 12 states (6 not previously
represented) to begin meeting in Summer 2010. The AIM Math Teachers’ Circle serves as a
model for these other Circles as well as a testing ground for new materials that are distributed
through the Network website at www.mathteacherscircle.org.
The total cost for one summer and academic year of the AIM Math Teachers’ Circle program is
approximately $34,800, including the residential summer workshop ($24,800), 7 three-hour
follow-up meetings during the academic year ($7,000), and staff time for materials
development and website maintenance ($3,000). The program has received academic-year
sponsorship for 2009-2010 from Rockwell Collins and private donors, and previous sponsors
include the National Security Agency and the Mathematical Association of America. We are also
approaching several other organizations for support, including the Tellabs Foundation, the Palo
Alto Community Foundation, and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
3
The AIM Math Teachers’ Circle Summer 2010 Workshop
At the AIM Math Teachers’ Circle workshop in Summer 2010, approximately 20 Bay Area
middle school teachers will come to AIM for 4 days of intensive work with area mathematicians.
Each day, the teachers will engage in approximately 4 highly interactive 90- to 120-minute
problem-solving sessions led by the mathematicians. Each session will focus on a rich
mathematical problem or set of related problems that the teachers will approach through
individual and small group work and guided group discussions. At the end of each session, a
teacher volunteer will lead a discussion about the way problem solving was incorporated into
the session and how this could be applied in the middle school classroom. All teachers who
participated in a similar workshop at AIM in Summer 2009 reported that the workshop gave
them greater confidence with problem solving and provided materials they would use in their
classrooms. In an open survey, approximately half of these teachers stated that the workshop
contained richer, more challenging mathematical content than any other professional
development program they had participated in.
In addition to involving the participants in the ongoing activities of the AIM Math Teachers’
Circle, the goals of the Summer 2010 workshop include improving the participants’ confidence
with problem solving and increasing their mathematical content knowledge. To assess whether
these goals are achieved, project evaluation will include pre- and post-workshop surveys and
also a pre- and post-workshop administration of items from the Learning Mathematics for
Teaching (LMT) instruments developed at the University of Michigan. Researchers at Michigan
and Harvard have found that higher teacher scores on the LMT are linked with the presentation
of richer mathematics in the classroom and with higher student achievement scores. This
workshop will provide an opportunity to test whether participating in Math Teachers’ Circle
sessions is associated with increased scores on the LMT, which will help inform our efforts to
evaluate the success of other Math Teachers’ Circles around the country.
As a program with an innovative approach to high-quality professional development for
teachers and a growing impact on education in the Bay Area, we believe that the AIM Math
Teachers’ Circle fits well with the mission of the Koret Foundation and hope you will consider
our request to submit a full proposal. Thank you in advance for your consideration. Please do
not hesitate to contact me with any questions at either 650-845-2071 or [email protected].
The Chairman of AIM’s Board of Trustees, Professor Gerald Alexanderson, may be contacted at
[email protected].
Sincerely,
J. Brian Conrey
Executive Director
Enclosures: