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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 9, 2003

Birmingham-Southern College grant will increase support of area schoolteachers to improve math test scores

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Birmingham-Southern College has received a major grant as part of the national No Child Left Behind Act to initiate a professional development program for local schoolteachers that will strengthen student test scores.

The $55,000 grant from the Alabama Commission on Higher Education will support cooperative work between Birmingham-Southern faculty and middle-school math teachers in the Jefferson County, Bessemer, and Fairfield school systems to provide training for better development of math teaching.

Several workshops will be set up throughout the year for BSC faculty to provide teacher training in algebra, geometry, and probability/statistics. Technology instruction also will be integrated into the workshop curriculum.

Principals from the area will be invited to attend meetings on the BSC campus to support teachers and help raise academic standards at their schools. Area businesses, including Mayer Electric Co. and SouthTrust and Compass banks, also will support and participate in workshops.

The grant proposal “Helping Teachers to Help Students in Mathematics” was a joint effort of the divisions of Education and Math/Science/Computer Science at BSC. The grant is renewable and will support a three-year program.

“It is the hope of the math and education faculty here at Birmingham Southern that the lives of middle-school students in our area will be enriched through the training of mathematics teachers,” said Mary Jane Turner, who instructs mathematics and secondary education at BSC and is directing the grant program. “The goals of this project are to strengthen teachers' knowledge base in mathematics, provide new teaching strategies and technology resources to be used in the classroom, and raise test scores for students in local schools of the Birmingham area.”

Six additional members of the BSC math and education faculty will assist Turner with the workshops.

ACHE is a 12-member statewide agency responsible for the overall statewide planning and coordination of higher education in Alabama, the administration of various student aid programs, and the performance of designated regulatory functions.