Calvin math prof has invested $1 million in area teachers via state grants

Calvin professor of mathematics and statistics Jan Koop is the recipient of her fourth Improving Teacher Quality Grant awarded by the Michigan Department of Education. To date, Koop has used grants totaling nearly $1 million to help area teachers better understand and teach mathematics.

"I think we are making an impact," said Koop. "I've seen teachers who have completely turned around the way they teach mathematics, and that's a win."

The most recent grant worth $200,000 is being used to assist 40 teachers at William C. Abney Academy, a charter school in Grand Rapids, that serves Kindergarten through seventh grade students and two teachers from West Side Christian School.

This past June, as part of the grant, all 42 teachers participated in a five-day summer workshop. During the course of the 2012-2013 academic year, the teachers will return to Calvin for a total of five more days and Koop will visit each of their classrooms four to five times. The teachers will also be involved in team-taught workshops throughout the year.

"The reason we do this is because there's almost no money for professional development anymore, so teachers don't get professional development. So, in order to provide teachers with anything, we have to write a grant."

Koop's passion for area schools runs deep as she's worked with local teachers for more than 35 years. As she begins her time with William C. Abney Academy and West Side Christian School, she's finishing up her work through a previous Improving Teacher Quality Grant with two Wyoming Public Schools (Gladiola and West Elementary), which commenced in May 2011. Koop has also worked with Godfrey Lee and Grand Rapids Public Schools through her first two Improving Teacher Quality grants.

Koop has enjoyed seeing teachers' attitudes about math change, some quite significantly. She gives out an attitude survey before the program starts to gauge how the teachers feel about math and how they teach math. The participants then retake the survey at the end of the 16-month grant period. Koop said looking at Godfrey-Lee's results, that everything improved dramatically, which was encouraging, because, she said: "It's really hard to change people's attitudes."

Koop is hoping to bring life to mathematics' classrooms across west Michigan. Her work centers on helping those who teach mathematics to better understand what they are teaching, and to teach students more than just how to arrive at the right answer--to teach them why those answers make sense.

For more information, contact Koop at 616-526-6427 or at kooj@calvin.edu

-end-

Matt Kucinski
Media Relations Manager
Calvin College
msk23@calvin.edu
616.526.8935 (office)
616.307.7429 (cell)
Received on Fri Jul 13 08:40:41 2012