Muir Elementary teachers awarded $10,000 grant for algebra program Wisconsin State Journal May 6, 1999 Reprinted with permission

By Doug Erickson

Education reporter

A team of four Madison elementary teachers has received a rare $10,000 national math grant as part of their efforts to introduce algebra to students as young as kindergartners.

The teachers' work should greatly advance district goals of improving minority achievement and making sure all students have passed algebra by the end of ninth grade, said Linda McQuillen, the district's algebra gateway resource teacher.

''This is pretty new nationally,'' McQuillen said. ''There are not many teachers across the country doing what they're doing.''

The Toyota company, in partnership with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, awarded 17 national grants of up to $10,000 to elementary teachers.

The team of four teachers at Muir Elementary -- Annie Keith, Barb Wiesner, Sue Berthouex and Mary Bostrom -- received the full grant amount. It is the first time a Wisconsin school has received such a grant, McQuillen said.

Said Principal John Burmaster: ''These teachers are really pioneering the effort to get kids past rote skills and into higher-level thinking.''

The district is phasing out lower-level classes such as general math and consumer math in favor of algebra and advanced algebra at the high schools.

''We're automatically leaving kids out of successful careers and lives by tracking them into these lower-level math classes,'' Bostrom said.

Teaching algebraic concepts in early grades can lay the foundation for successful algebra students later on, McQuillen said.

The bulk of kids not making it through algebra now are minority students and those from low-income families, she said.

''This is clearly an equity issue,'' she said.

The grant money will be used for workshops so that the four Muir teachers can teach the other teachers in the school about the algebraic approach. Resource books and other teaching materials also will be purchased with the money. Eventually, the Muir team will disseminate information to others in the district and nationally.

''If we can get people to buy into this, I think we'll really see some differences in our math scores,'' Bostrom said. ''We'll be able to compete with other countries much better.''

Posted May 7, 1999

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