History of UCSMP

People Made the Project
UCSMP officially began in 1983 when, through the work of Izaak Wirszup at the University of Chicago and Keith McHenry of the Amoco Corporation, the departments of mathematics and education at the University received a generous six-year grant from the Amoco Foundation (now the BP Foundation). The grant was for a multifaceted project to improve mathematics education for the vast majority of students in grades K-12. The project brought together several faculty whose research laid the groundwork for UCSMP. They were:

Izaak Wirszup, UCSMP's Resource Development Component director. Professor Wirszup had collected a vast library of educational materials and research from the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, from which he had translated some of the best non-text materials. This work led him to alert government officials in Washington about what he felt were low standards of mathematics education in the United States compared to those in other countries. The mathematics education community was saddened by the death of Professor Wirszup on January 30, 2008. Please click here to read more about his life and legacy.

Paul Sally, UCSMP's first director. Professor Sally had created special summer programs to teach higher mathematics to bright high school students and had taken a special interest in educating urban schoolchildren and teachers.

Zalman Usiskin, UCSMP's current director and director of the Secondary Component. Professor Usiskin had researched the teaching of mathematics using transformations, matrices, and groups, and through real-life applications. He had developed textbooks for all four years of high school, incorporating contemporary mathematical thinking. His work had shown that many students enter high school with insufficient knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, and geometry to enable them to succeed.

Max Bell, UCSMP's Elementary Component director. Professor Bell was a pioneer in the desire to teach applications of mathematics and had shown in his research that most children entered school with far greater mathematical knowledge than teachers and textbooks assumed.

At its start, UCSMP brought in as directors of portions of its work Sheila Sconiers, a 7th- and 8th-grade science and mathematics teacher who had worked with Professor Bell on developing materials for teachers; Larry Hedges, a professor of education with expertise in quantitative analysis and meta-analysis; and Susan Stodolsky, a professor of education with expertise in qualitative analysis and classroom observation. A few years later, Sharon Senk, a professor of mathematics education who, before UCSMP began, had worked with Professor Usiskin on a study of geometry and proof, joined the team.

The Early Years
UCSMP began by examining the curricula of other countries for proven ideas and methods, creating textbooks and training programs at both the elementary and secondary level, and engaging in extensive evaluations of its own work. Essential to this work was the participation of school administrators and teachers, who were closely involved in the planning, writing, and evaluation of UCSMP curricula. During the first six years, UCSMP activities were supported by grants.

1989-The Present

Materials Development
In 1989, recognizing the need for UCSMP to continue its work, the Amoco Foundation granted funding for five more years. This grant, followed by additional grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the National Science Foundation (NSF), allowed the project to complete its K-3 materials, finish the last two books of its secondary curriculum, continue work on its program for mathematics specialists in grades 4-6, and begin holding annual conferences for teachers at both elementary and secondary levels.

In 1992, the project undertook three new multi-year initiatives: publication of UCSMP translations of foreign textbooks, extension of the K-3 curriculum to grades 4-6 with the help of a five-year NSF grant, and development of a second edition of the secondary curriculum. In the same year, the NSF also funded Karen Fuson of Northwestern University to design and carry out a five-year longitudinal study of performance of children in grades 1-5 of the elementary curriculum. The study showed that Everyday Mathematics students outperformed comparison students at all grade levels.

In 1996, the second edition of the secondary curriculum appeared, an edition that because of publisher mergers and acquisitions first appeared from Scott, Foresman, then from Scott Foresman - Addison Wesley, and finally from Prentice Hall. By 2002, the elementary (K-6) Everyday Mathematics curriculum was in its second edition with publication by SRA/McGraw-Hill.

In the past few years, UCSMP has undertaken a major revision of both its elementary and secondary materials. The third editions at both levels are being published - along with entirely new Everyday Mathematics Pre-Kindergarten and UCSMP Pre-Transition Mathematics courses - by Wright Group/McGraw-Hill. Third editions of Everyday Mathematics Pre-K through 6 materials, Transition Mathematics, and Algebra are now available, and all texts - Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12 - will be available by 2009-10.

International Perspectives
UCSMP hosted international conferences in 1985, 1988, 1991, 1998, 2005, and 2008. This reflects our belief that good ideas and research are not limited to our country, and that experiences in other countries have relevance to us. Proceedings of the first four of these conferences were published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Proceedings of the 2005 conference, held under the auspices of the Center for the Study of Mathematics Curriculum (CSMC), will be published in 2008 by Information Age Publishing. These proceedings are part of the CSMC series.

Professional Development
In 1998, the Stuart Foundation funded UCSMP and the University of California at Berkeley to develop mathematics materials for secondary-school teachers. This effort culminated in 2003, when Mathematics for High School Teachers-An Advanced Perspective was published by Prentice Hall Higher Education Division.

Work continues on a variety of initiatives to help support Everyday Mathematics implementations in large urban school systems. These initiatives, which are supported by federal, state, and local agencies, including the Chicago Public Schools, provide direct services to teachers and leaders and are developing tools that local leaders elsewhere can use to support Everyday Mathematics in their own districts.

Sustainability
Since 1989, UCSMP textbook royalties have supported some UCSMP operations. In the 1990s, royalties from the secondary curriculum generated funds for research in mathematics education - for UCSMP evaluations and other university research on teaching and learning mathematics - and for the publication of reports.

Currently, royalties from the elementary curriculum are being used to fund the Center for Elementary Mathematics and Science Education (CEMSE). Established at the University of Chicago in 2002, CEMSE conducts and supports research and development for the mathematics and science education of children up to 14 years of age. Royalties from both curricula help to support the UCSMP administration and outreach.