Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) recently received some good news on the professional development front. Thanks to two new multi-year grants from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), totaling more than $900,000, the district will be able to extend its successful mathematics professional development partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW). In addition, these grants will enable MMSD and the UW to launch a new professional development initiative for middle school science teachers.

These two initiatives will use a model staff development program pioneered by MMSD and UW over the past three years with middle school math teachers from Madison and eight other cooperating districts. Through this model, MMSD resource teachers and UW faculty co-teach courses that boost classroom teachers' content knowledge, model research-based best teaching practices, and provide ongoing support during the school year as teachers apply their new knowledge and skills. Partner districts in these new grants include Beloit, Deerfield, Kettle Moraine, Monona Grove, Mt. Horeb, Oregon, Sauk Prairie, Sun Prairie, and Wisconsin Heights

This marks only the second time in the history of DPI's federally-funded Math & Science Partnerships program that one district has received two of these grants in the same year. For more information, contact Lisa Wachtel, Executive Director of Teaching & Learning (663-5216, lwachtel@madison.k12.wi.us).

Prof. Terry Millar (far left), MMSD's grant-funded projects' lead person from UW-Madison, leads a math professional development workshop. Also pictured: Barb Moen (right) from Jefferson Middle, Chrissy Mitlyng (front left) from Sherman, Mary Ploeser from Spring Harbor (back left) and Steve Jernegan, Math Instructional Resource Teacher-Middle Schools.