Massachusetts

Massachusetts

Brant Point Lighthouse Nantucket MA

Lead Agency

  • Massachusetts Department of Higher Education (MDHE)

Math Pathways Subcommittee Facilitators

  • Elena Quiroz-Livanis, Chief of Staff and Director of Academic Policy and Student Success, Massachusetts Department of Higher Education
  • Allison Little, Executive Director of STEM, Massachusetts Department of Higher Education

Math Pathways Subcommittee Co-Chairs

  • Linda Dart-Kathios, Mathematics Department Chairperson at Middlesex Community College
  • Maura Murray, Math Professor at Salem State University 

MPC Consultant

  • Richard Kazis, consultant for multiple education and workforce initiatives (e.g., Charles A. Dana Center, MDRC, Brookings Institution)

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Phase 1 Math Pathways Subcommittee Members
 

Name

Title

Institution

Andreana Grimaldo

Math Professor

Quinsigamond Community College

Phil Hotchkiss

Math Professor

Westfield State University

Catalin Zara

Associate Professor of Mathematics

University of Massachusetts Boston

Click Expand button to view all Math Pathways Subcommittee Members for Phase 1 activity.

Name

Title

Institution

Greg Sethares

Chief Academic Officer

Bristol Community College

Norman Beebe

Math Professor

Greenfield Community College
Habib Maagoul Math Professor Northern Essex Community College

Heather Thomas

MassTransfer Coordinator

Fitchburg State University
Linda Vaden-Goad Chief Academic Officer Framingham State University
Amy Wehe Math Professor Fitchburg State University
Mike Winders Math Professor Worcester State University
Melinda Griffin Mathematics Specialist, Central Region Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
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Phase 2 Math Pathways Subcommittee Members
 

Name

Title

Institution

Andreana Grimaldo

Math Professor

Quinsigamond Community College

Karin Vorwerk

Math Professor

Westfield State University

Catalin Zara

Associate Professor of Mathematics

University of Massachusetts Boston

Click Expand button to view all Math Pathways Subcommittee Members for Phase 2 activity.

Name

Title

Institution

Dan Avedikian

Department Chair and Professor of Mathematics

Bristol Community College

Norman Beebe

Math Professor

Greenfield Community College

Habib Maagoul

Math Professor

Northern Essex Community College

Charlie Kaminski

Dean of Business, Science, Mathematics and Technology

Berkshire Community College

Chantal Rhind

Math Professor

Berkshire Community College

Sunny Kang

Associate Professor and Chairperson

Bunker Hill Community College

Hemant Chikarmane

Interim Dean of STEM

Cape Cod Community College

Mary Sullivan

Mathematics Faculty, Chairperson

Cape Cod Community College

Cathy Dillard

Math Professor

Holyoke Community College

Chitra Javdekar

Dean of STEM

Massachusetts Bay Community College

Robyn McDonough

Math Faculty

Middlesex Community College

Aisha Arroyo

Math Faculty

Middlesex Community College

Shawn Case

Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Mount Wachusett Community College

Janice Barney

Dean, School of Business, Science, Technology and Mathematics

Mount Wachusett Community College

Walter Stone

Assistant Dean of STEM and Education

North Shore Community College

Elena Fenici

Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Quinsigamond Community College

Kimberly Rogers

Academic & Student Affairs

Roxbury Community College

Javad Moulai

Math Professor

Roxbury Community College

Daneille Tabella

Testing & Assessment

Roxbury Community College

Lauren Brewer

Professor & Co-Chair of Mathematics

Springfield Technical Community College

Nicole Bedinelli

Associate Professor of Mathematics

Springfield Technical Community College

Rebecca Metcalf

Associate Professor of Mathematics

Bridgewater State University

John Schaumloffel

Dean of Academic Affairs

Fitchburg State University

Mary Ann Barbato

Professor of Mathematics

Fitchburg State University

Julie Levandosky

Associate Professor of Mathematics

Framingham State University

Adrienne Wooters

Professor, Physics and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

Rebecca Norton

Assistant Professor

Massachusetts Maritime Academy

Bukurie Gjoci

Assistant Professor

Massachusetts Maritime Academy

Eileen Perez

Assistant Professor

Worcester State University
Farshid Hajir Sr Vice Provost AA/Professor University of Massachusetts Amherst
Tibor Beke Associate Professor University of Massachusetts Lowell

Saeja Kim

Professor / Chairperson of Mathematics

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
BiYong Luo Director of First Year Teaching University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Connie Varoudakis

 

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Nyal Fuentes   Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
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Listen as Co–Chairs and Facilitators of the Massachusetts Math Pathways Subcommittee of the Task Force on Transforming Developmental Math Education present outcomes of the work with the MPC project.
Formal Charge

Formal Charge

Commissioner Carlos E. Santiago charged the Math Pathways Subcommittee of the Task Force on Transforming Developmental Math Education with exploring the benefits and implications of multiple math pathways and with developing recommendations for increasing success in mathematics that will:

  1. Ensure students take the appropriate math for their major;

  2. Increase alignment between college-level and developmental mathematics across the three segments of public higher education to promote on-time completion; and

  3. Increase transferability of math courses and applicability across the three segments of public higher education.

In January 2018, the Math Pathways Subcommittee of the Task Force on Transforming Developmental Math Education published its report -- Designing Math Pathways: Supporting Students and Increasing Opportunity for Successview full resourceView Full ResourceDownloadFile -- which identified five recommendations and strategies committed to improve higher education outcomes in developmental and credit-bearing mathematics courses. These five recommendations include:

  1. In an effort to ensure students complete the right mathematics course for their major, Massachusetts institutions of public higher education should develop at least four math pathways: Calculus, Elementary Education, Quantitative Reasoning, and Statistics.

  2. MassTransfer Associate-to-Bachelor (A2B) mapped pathway disciplines should identify the appropriate default or recommended mathematics for their major.

  3. Students who require remediation should have the opportunity to complete their college-level mathematics course within one year of enrollment, preferably within a co-requisite model.

  4. The DHE should develop a course completion indicator (“flag”) for all courses that satisfy Quantitative Reasoning requirements. This will improve the DHE’s data collection and the ability to track student progress.

  5. The Department of Higher Education should work with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to ensure alignment between K-12 and postsecondary course expectations and requirements.

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Featured Resources

Transforming Developmental Math Education, MDHE

A major obstacle to the timely completion of an academic degree program is lack of preparedness of students, particularly in the area of math education.

MassTransfer Pathways

MassTransfer Pathways builds on the work of the Common Course Numbering initiative, which was created to ease the process of transfer among Massachusetts public colleges and universities governed b

https://www.mass.edu/masstransfer/
State Level Organizations
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Elena Quiroz-Livanis, Chief of Staff and Director of Academic Policy and Student Success, Massachusetts Department of Higher Education
"Massachusetts made the decision to revisit the current paradigm for development education and, by joining the Dana Center Math Pathways initiative, we have committed to make changes that allow us to better prepare our students. We have also committed to scale promising practices that systematically decrease the percentage of students who require remediation. We believe this will improve the percentage of students earning their degrees and allow us to provide the Commonwealth with the educated citizenry it needs."
Elena Quiroz-Livanis, Chief of Staff and Director of Academic Policy and Student Success, Massachusetts Department of Higher Education

Our Work at the State Level

Select a state to learn more about how local leaders are setting a vision for math pathways or read an analysis of math pathways work across multiple states.