Prior Results

The goal of the NSF-funded Closing the Gap: Math Clubs for Girls Project (HRD 95-53337 11/95-5/97) run by Jan Mokros (PI), Mary Berle-Carman and Lisa Yaffee (Co-Directors) was to develop, in collaboration with teachers, several models of school-based math clubs for girls which can be replicated in elementary schools across the country. The clubs have increased girls' interest and enthusiasm for math, helped teachers improve the climate of their co-ed mathematics classrooms, and increased community involvement in mathematics education. Working with the Berkshire Hills Regional School District (BHRSD), Boston Public Schools, and Lexington Public Schools, we developed and piloted several highly successful school-based models including:

• weekly math clubs for girls held during lunch or before or after school. Boys who wish to attend are included.
  
  
• parallel single-gender girls and boys math clubs. Teachers pair up and trade students to form two single gender groups. After completing a six-week unit of work teachers trade groups so that each teacher experiences both all girls and all boys groups. These groups meet once a week for an hour each, or in one case one week each month for five straight days.

In each school, math clubs served as a framework for teachers to learn about the gender dynamics in their math classrooms. Additionally, they used clubs as a place to experiment with reform mathematics activities. Once teachers recognized and reflected on the gender issues in their classrooms, the club framework became a way to think about how to improve the co-ed classroom environment. At each site teachers also made changes in their regular classroom math instruction after experiencing their students' responses to reform math activities.

Impact on Teachers and Districts

• raised issues they didn't acknowledge earlier with regard to gender -- specifically their biases in regular classroom teaching toward boys. For example:
  
  
  • Are girls expected to set appropriate standards of behavior in the regular math classroom at the expense of their own learning?
    
    
  • Do boys absorb most of the teacher's attention in the co-ed classroom for either discipline issues or because they are more assertive in class?
    
    
  • Do we as teachers communicate unknowingly different expectations for girls and boys in mathematics?
    
    
  • What are the ways we ask students to participate in class? How can we ensure participation and establish a rapport with those students least likely to raise their hands and speak to the whole class?
    
    
  • How can we support all students in developing good listening and group discussion skills?
    
    
  • How can we address the (sometimes quiet) culture of put-downs and harassment that exists in many co-ed classrooms?
  
  
  
• helped improve the climate of the co-ed classrooms. Following the implementation of math clubs, teachers reported that girls participate more in co-ed classrooms and are more proactive generally, while boys attend to including girls in class discussion and group work.
  
  
• provided a manageable structure for encouraging parent and community involvement in mathematics classes. (At each site parents and/or business partners regularly visited math clubs to discuss the math they do in their work.) The involvement of parents and business leaders has increased students' understanding of the math required for different careers and has introduced boys and girls to successful women using mathematics in many different fields of work.
  
  
• increased collaboration/discussion about pedagogical issues in those schools where the parallel girls and boys club structure has been used (BHRSD, Lexington) because teachers trade students, facilitate the same mathematics activities each day of the club, and meet at common prep times to discuss club work/results.

• The PALMS regional provider organized and hosted two gender/mathematics workshops plus follow-ups for teachers county-wide, (Summer 1997.)
  
  
• The district has hired math club teacher leaders to provide ongoing in-service training promoting the single gender math club model and reform mathematics district-wide, (Spring 1997.)
  
  
• The district sponsored a one day gender/math workshop for teachers county-wide, (Spring 1997.)
  
  
• The Math Task Force for the district adopted reform math curriculum for fourth and fifth grades and committed money to in-service (January 1997.)
  
  
• The school district purchased reform curriculum for all interested teachers, (September 1996.)
  
  
• Thirteen teachers chose to experiment with a new reform-based curriculum in the first year after hearing about the experiences of their colleagues teaching math clubs, (Spring 1996.)
  
  
• The school district sponsored one in-service day, and a two-day summer workshop attended by elementary teachers in the district to explore gender issues in mathematics education and reform mathematics. (Led by TERC staff in collaboration with teacher leaders, March 1996.)
  
  
  

• "I like being with all girls because boys can be loud when I am concentrating." (fifth grade girl)
  
  
• "You are always with a girl. You can concentrate." (fourth grade girl)
  
  
• "I like being with all girls because the boys are much more wanting to move and when you say an answer the boy would laugh even if it was right." (fifth grade girl)
  
  
• "I would recommend math club because it was sort of fun but challenging." (fifth grade girl)
  
  
• "I like being with all girls because it is calmer. You don't get made fun of if you answer a question wrong. All the girls are very mature and it is nice..." (fifth grade girl)
  
  
• "I like being with all girls because sometimes the boys tease you." (third grade girl)
  
  
• "I like Girls Math Club because it makes it easier. I don't feel rushed." (third grade girl)

• Television:
  
  PBS will air a seven part series called "Life by the Numbers" that is devoted to mathematics. The seventh show in the series, "Making a Difference" will highlight several mathematics reform projects K-12 and will include an 8-10 minute segment on the Closing the Gap project. In addition, Closing the Gap information and materials will be included in an outreach resource packet provided by PBS to interested schools. To be aired starting April, 1998.
  
  
• Presentations:
  
  
  • School Based Single-Gender Math Clubs: Empowering Students and Teachers. NCTM National Convention-Minneapolis-Saint Paul, April 1997. Presented by Mary Berle-Carman and Roberta Shearn.
    
    
  • Reform Mathematics and Educational Equity: Single Gender Math Clubs Help Close the Gap. Quality Education for Minorities (QEM Network) -- A conference on Mathematics, Science, and Engineering, Boston 1997. Presented by Mary Berle-Carman.
    
    
  • Math Counts: Does Your Daughter? An evening school program attended by 150 parents and sponsored by the Lexington League of Women Voters and the Lexington School Department. Presented by Mary Berle-Carman.
    
    
• Newspapers/publications:
  
  
  • Articles have appeared in The Boston Sunday Globe (Northwest Section), Minuteman Press (Lexington, MA), Women's Times (serving Berkshire County, MA and the tri-state area), and the Southern Berkshire Record (Southern Berkshire County, MA.) Radio. Radio station WSBS in Great Barrington, MA devoted their weekly education show to the girls and boys math club program at the Stockbridge Plain School. The show included interviews with students, teachers, and TERC staff, as well as the producer of the PBS show "Making a Difference." TERC staff received numerous calls with regard to the program.
    
    
  • Berle-Carman, M., Yaffee, L., and Mokros, J. (1996, Fall). Math Clubs: Closing the Gap. Hands On! 17(2), 8-10. TERC, Cambridge, MA, 1996.
    
    
• Books:
  
  The Regional Alliance for Equity in Education (TERC) will include a case study of the Closing the Gap project in its Strategic Reform Handbook, forthcoming in spring 1998.
  
  
• Other:
  
  Barb Spencer (Michigan), is a teacher leader who learned about the Closing the Gap project. With minimal e-mail support from Closing the Gap staff, she has successfully started her own award winning math club program for girls funded by grants from her local Chamber of Commerce, the AAUW, and AT & T.