National Center for Improving Student Learning and Achievement in Mathematics and Science (NCISLA)

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Directors

Collaborating institutions

Researchers

National advisory board

The Center’s directors and management team coordinate research projects across six institutions. Findings are communicated to several audiences through publications and our evolving web site. Please contact us, if you need additional information about the Center’s work.

Director, Thomas P. Carpenter, PhD
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Former Director (1996-1999), Thomas A. Romberg, PhD
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Associate Director, James Stewart, PhD
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Associate Director, Paul Cobb, PhD
Vanderbilt University

Communication Director, Susan Smetzer-Anderson, PhD
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Researchers from these institutions collaborate on long-term studies and teacher professional development programs within and across grade levels and subject areas.

• Freudenthal Institute, University of Utrecht,
  The Netherlands
  
  
• University of California-Los Angeles
  
  
• University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth
  
  
• University of Miami
  
  
• Peabody College, Vanderbilt University
  
  
• Wisconsin Center for Education Research,
  University of Wisconsin-Madison

Eighteen researchers from across the country and the Netherlands are leading studies about K-12 students' learning, teacher professional development, and school and district organizational contexts. The researchers and their expertise areas are listed below. To contact any of our researchers by phone, please call 608-263-3605.

Maria Lynn Blanton

Assistant Professor
Mathematics Department
University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth

Expertise Areas

• Classroom discourse
• Sociocultural theory in mathematics teacher education
• Development of elementary students' algebraic thinking
  

Center Research

• Algebraic Reseasoning in the Elementary Grades

Thomas P. Carpenter

Director and Researcher
NCISLA / Mathematics and Science

Professor, Department of Curriculum & Instruction
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Expertise Areas

• Development of children’s mathematical thinking
• Elementary students’ development of algebraic reasoning
• Teacher professional development that is self-sustaining and generative in nature
  

Center Research

• Algebraic Reasoning in the Elementary Grades

Jennifer L. Cartier

Researcher and Associate Lecturer, Department of Curriculum & Instruction
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Expertise Areas

• Student reasoning with and understanding about explanatory models in science
• Student model-based problem solving in genetics and earth science
• Site-based teacher professional development (instruction, materials, assessment)
• Preservice teacher education related to modeling pedagogy

Center Research

• Modeling for Understanding in Science Education

Paul Cobb

Associate Director
NCISLA / Mathematics and Science

Professor
Mathematics Education
Department of Teaching and Learning
Vanderbilt University

Expertise Areas

• Learning and teaching of arithmetic in the early grades
• Learning and teaching of statistics and data analysis in the middle grades
• Classroom communication and discourse
• Instructional design in mathematics

Center Research

• Statistics in the Middle Grades

Jan de Lange

Director
Freudenthal Institute
Utrecht University
Tiberdreef 4
3561 GG Utrecht
The Netherlands

Expertise Areas

• Modeling and applications in mathematics education
• Multimedia and new technologies
• Implementation of mathematics curriculum reform
• Assessing student learning in mathematics

Center Research

• Classroom Assessment as the Basis for Teacher Change (CATCH)

Megan Loef Franke

Associate Professor
Graduate School of Education
University of California-Los Angeles

Expertise Areas

• Students' mathematical thinking and learning
• Teachers' knowledge, beliefs, and practices
• Teacher professional development that is self-sustaining and generative in nature
  

Center Research

• Algebraic Reasoning in the Elementary Grades

Adam Gamoran

Professor, Sociology and Educational Policy Studies
Wisconsin Center for Education Research
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Expertise Areas

• Inequality in education
• Curriculum tracking/ability grouping
• Magnet schools
• School organization and resources

Center Research

• Cross-site Analyses of District and School Organizational Contexts

Koeno Gravemeijer

Director of Research
Freudenthal Institute
Utrecht University
Tiberdreef 4
3561 GG
Utrecht, The Netherlands

Expertise Areas

• Statistics and mathematics education
• Teacher enhancement
• Students' use of symbols and modeling
  

Center Research

• Statistics in the Middle Grades

James J. Kaput

Professor
Department of Mathematics
University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth

Expertise Areas

• Elementary students’ development of algebraic reasoning
• Development of affordable technologies for mathematics education
• The learnability of new ideas, such as complexity, chaos and nonlinear systems

Center Research

• Algebraic Reasoning in the Elementary Grades

Okhee Lee

Chair, CREDE-NCISLA Science and
Diversity Task Force
Professor
Teaching and Learning
University of Miami, Florida

Expertise Areas

• Science education reform
• Language and culture in science education
• Diversity and equity
• Teacher learning and change

Center Research

• NCISLA-CREDE Task Forces Synthesizing Research in Mathematics, Science, and Diversity

Linda Levi

Associate Researcher
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Expertise Areas

• Professional development programs that help teachers use knowledge of children's thinking in their teaching of elementary mathematics
  
• Cognitively Guided Instruction approach to elementary mathematics
  
• Algebra in the elementary school
  
• Gender equity in mathematics education

Center Research

• Algebraic Reasoning in the Elementary Grades
  
  
  

Kay McClain

Assistant Professor
Mathematics Education
Department of Teaching and Learning
Vanderbilt University

Expertise Areas

• Classroom teaching experiments focusing on proactive teaching roles
• Instructional design
• Multimedia tools for teacher enhancement and preservice teacher education
• Students' statistical reasoning and use of computer-based tools
  

Center Research

• Statistics in the Middle Grades

Thomas A. Romberg

Sears Roebuck Foundation–Bascom Professor Emeritus of Education
Wisconsin Center for Education Research
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Expertise Areas

• Teaching and learning of mathematics
• Assessing students’ mathematical understanding
• Program evaluation
• Curriculum theory and reform

Center Research

• Classroom Assessment as the Basis for Teacher Change (CATCH)
  
  
  

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available)

Walter G. Secada

Chair, CREDE-NCISLA Mathematics & Diversity Task Force

Professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Expertise Areas

• Reform of school mathematics
• Secondary mathematics classrooms that promote urban students’ understanding
• Equity in education
• Bilingual education
• Multicultural education
• Hispanic school dropout

Center Research

• NCISLA-CREDE Task Forces Synthesizing Research in Mathematics, Science, and Diversity

Susan Smetzer-Anderson

Communication Director
NCISLA / Mathematics and Science
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Expertise Areas

• Analysis of audience needs
• Diffusion of new practices and ideas across populations
• Mass Communication theory
• Public Information campaign design and evaluation

Center Research

• NCISLA Communication Program

James Stewart

Associate Director
NCISLA / Mathematics and Science

Professor, Department of Curriculum & Instruction
Institute for Environmental Studies
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Expertise Areas

• Student learning, problem solving, and reasoning in science (particularly evolutionary biology and genetics)
• Curriculum and instructional materials development in science
• Student learning about the nature of science as a modeling enterprise

Center Research

• Modeling for Understanding in Science Education

A national advisory board and recognized researchers provide input to the Center's research agenda and dissemination program.

Mary Lindquist, Chair
Columbus College

Hilda Borko
University of Colorado-Boulder

Jim Greeno
Stanford University

Marcia C. Linn
University of California-Berkeley

Martin Nystrand
Center for English Learning & Achievement
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Gilbert Valdez
North Central Regional Educational Laboratory