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A Mathematician's Overview of the Virginia Elementary Mathematics Specialist Program

L.D. PITT Dept. of Mathematics, University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA 22904 This article discusses the mathematics component of the Mathematics Specialist master's degree program in the "Virginia Mathematics Specialist Project" (VMSP). It includes my personal views on the significant mathematical knowledge and skills that Mathematics Specialists need, the mathematics that is taught in the Mathematics Specialist courses, and my thoughts on what appear to be the substantial mathematical abilities and aptitudes that are required by successful Mathematics Specialists in their work. The interpretations I present are highly personal and are undoubtedly dependent on my personal history, a short description of which is given (see Appendix A). Background I use "Virginia Mathematics Specialist Project" (VMSP) as a term covering the work done in Virginia over a seven-year period with a sequence of three Virginia MSP Specialist grants and two, five-year NSF projects: the TPC project, "Mathematics Specialists in K-5 Schools: Research and Policy Pilot Study"; and, the NSF Institute project, "Preparing Virginia's Mathematics Specialists." All this work was done under the umbrella of the Virginia Mathematics and Science Coalition (VMSC). The partnerships included six Virginia Institutes of Higher Education (IHE), the University of Maryland, and forty-five Virginia school divisions. Mathematical Proficiency for All The VMSP has led the effort to implement Mathematics Specialists in Virginia. The project has had three notable successes. The Commonwealth of Virginia has established a K-8 Mathematics Specialist endorsement. Eight universities have established Mathematics Specialist master's degree programs with 21-credit hours of common courses. Five years of research has now been completed and is discussed elsewhere in this issue. This article is focused on the mathematical core of the VMSP's master's degree programs, a sequence of five mathematics courses that each student takes. The courses are: