PR1ME

Project PRIME (Promoting Reflective Inquiry in Mathematics Education) is a five-year, targeted Mathematics and Science Partnership (MSP) project aimed at improving the academic achievement of all students in the Rapid City Area Schools. This grant will focus, in particular, on reducing the achievement gap between Native American and non-Native American students. In addition, the project will improve the professional capacity of all mathematics teachers in the Rapid City Area Schools and all student teachers of mathematics from Black Hills State University.

Through a collaborative, multi-faceted curriculum implementation and professional development model, all teachers of mathematics in Rapid City Area Schools will receive at least 100 hours of professional development in a combination of content-based workshops delivered primarily at the district level and building-based activities which focus on modeling effective lesions, peer mentoring and coaching, and lesson study. Mathematics Teacher Leaders will be assigned to every school in the district, they will provide job-embedded professional development and support at the classroom level.

Getting the Numbers to Dance
In May of 2007, Project PRIME hosted an expert conference to discuss and synthesize promising strategies for meeting the needs of Native American learners in mathematics. Participants in this event included mathematics educators and researchers from universities and tribal colleges, educators from school districts with high Native American populations, state-level policy makers, and educational researchers. A team from Inverness Research, PRIME's external evaluator, has documented the conference in paper above.

Partnership with the South Dakota's Indian Education Summit
In September of 2007, Project PRIME served as a supporting partner to the South Dakota Department of Education to host the 2007 Regional Indian Education Summit. The summary of PRIME's expert conference was shared during a special keynote within the Summit with over 175 participants attending. PRIME also brought back nine of the national experts to facilitate sessions focused on mathematics, making up 40% of the Summit breakouts. The presentation by Judith Hankes on Cognitively Guided Instruction was one of those breakouts and represents an excellent example of the mathematical focus of PRIME.