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The Challenge
When we began developing Pathways (then known as the Middle-school Mathematics through Applications Project, or MMAP) in 1992, mathematics learning in school was in a crisis: over 90% of the students who began the high school math sequence were not finishing; girls' achievement in math was dropping during the middle school years; inner-city youth were failing in school; and patterns of alienation were firmly reflected in high drop-out rates. With opportunities for future jobs building in the science and technical fields, school mathematics functioned as a prominent gatekeeper. Without successful completion of high school mathematics--Algebra and beyond--students were left unprepared for entrance to college, technical education, or, in many instances, work.

MMAP's Response
MMAP took guidance from the NCTM Standards, research on learning, the concerns of middle school students, and conjectures about learning from theories of situated cognition in order to create curriculum materials that could work within national constraints for standards and accountability. We made several commitments to materials development and research:

* to define and test the feasibility of an applications-based approach to learning math by creating and field testing a series of application units and assessments for middle school math classrooms;

* to learn more about the ways that technologies might be integrated into the mathematics classroom through a research and development process;

* to bring to the curriculum design process a collaborative community that included education researchers, teachers and teacher educators, curriculum developers, math-using professionals and students;

* to work with teachers to learn about the issues they face as they make changes in their perspectives and practices; and,

* to conduct research to improve on our materials design and to generate new understandings of mathematics teaching and learning.
 




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