Dept. of Ed

Dept. of Ed’s Sclafani to speak

Susan Sclafani

BY B.J. ALMOND
Rice News staff

The U.S. Department of Education’s Susan Sclafani will speak June 6 to teachers and administrators from Houston-area schools and school districts participating in the Rice University School Mathematics Project’s 19th annual summer campus program for pre-K-12 teachers.

Sclafani, assistant secretary in the Office of Vocational and Adult Education, will share her views on closing the achievement gap and preparing America’s future. Her talk, “Preparing America’s Future: Math-Science Initiative,” will address educators’ concerns about the disparities in academic performance among different demographic groups.

Her visit to Rice was made possible by a grant from the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, said Anne Papakonstantinou, director of the School Mathematics Project and clinical assistant professor in natural science.

Many of the high school teachers and their administrators who were invited to Sclafani’s lecture are participating in the new Mathematics Leadership Institute (MLI) that Rice established with a $3.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

The MLI will work with teachers in the Houston and Aldine independent school districts to develop leaders in math who can improve instruction in their schools and assist other teachers. These “lead teachers” will receive four weeks of intensive professional development at Rice this summer to expand their knowledge in each of the important math areas that form the core of the high school mathematics curriculum and to develop their leadership skills.