The Modern Math Teacher Circle Initiative

Math is for all of us. 

Imagine a world in which every high school student could tell you how real people use the mathematics they are learning in school to solve real societal problems.

Current analysis indicates that the probability of students engaging with higher-order, real-world applications in school is less than 0.25% (Schmidt et al., 2022)*. Hungarian mathematician Paul Halmos famously said, “The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics.” Unfortunately, American students are rarely asked to do mathematics and are concurrently struggling to learn mathematics.

* An international study analyzing nearly 57,000 eighth-grade textbook exercises across 19 countries found that a mere 0.25% of the problems involved higher-order real-world applications.

We are building a community of researchers, local teachers, and undergraduates who create and implement modern mathematics lessons that engage students in doing mathematics and show them how UCLA researchers use math to solve real societal problems.

The work takes place in three phases:

Our objective is to raise $27,000 for the Modern Math Teacher Circle initiative. Your gift will provide:

• stipends for teacher and graduate student researcher time to meet together to create the modern math lessons collaboratively;   
• travel expenses for the authoring team to attend the lesson pilots

Your gift will immediately impact over 1,000 local high school students, 35 UCLA undergraduates, two graduate students, and 34 local public school teachers and has the potential to impact many more as the lessons created are disseminated across the country.

Within the UCLA community, The Curtis Center teaches mathematics majors interested in a career in mathematics education. Beyond the university, The Curtis Center works with teachers to increase K-12 student access to authentic and rigorous mathematical activity. Since 2007, The Curtis Center has partnered with nearly 40 rural and urban schools and districts across California, the majority of which serve predominantly historically underrepresented students, and has supported over 10,000 teachers. Through its curriculum and national assessment development, the Center has impacted over 177K teachers and 19M students.

►Instructions for giving via Donor Advised Fund, wire transfer, stocks/securities, etc. can be found here. All gifts to the Curtis Center are directed through the UCLA Foundation (Tax ID# 95-2250801). For general giving questions, please contact Loida De Leon at ldeleon@support.ucla.edu or (310) 405-3043. 

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Should this fund reach the campus minimum required for the establishment of an endowment or quasi-endowment, The UCLA Foundation reserves the right to convert this fund to an endowment or quasi-endowment. Please click here to learn more about how the UCLA Foundation invests and manages its endowments.