SciMathMN - Powering Minnesota to meet 21st century needs through K-12 mathematics, science and technology. SciMathMN is a non-profit, statewide education and business coalition advocating for quality K-12 science, mathematics and technology education based on research, national standards and effective practices.

2006 Highlights

• The coalition organized a briefing for Policymakers to be held at the beginning of the legislative season. The event was planned to focus on the revision of the Minnesota Academic Standards for Mathematics as the main focal point for a briefing as the standards go to the legislature for approval. Bill Schmidt, former director of TIMSS gave a strong presentation on world class standards. The event attracted about 125 policymakers from the state legislature and other advocacy organizations and business members. A paper on world class standards and how Minnesota measures up was commissioned for the event. The day preceding Nutting and former board chair, Mike Lindstrom, taped a cable show with the state's Commissioner of Education on the upcoming TIMSS study. The briefing resulted in the house requesting Nutting to testify before the entire house education committee. Presentations and documents from the event are posted at www.scimathmn.org.

NES Partnerships for Sustainability: The NES Partnerships for Sustainability Program was launched in 2003 as a pilot to gauge the effectiveness of state-based coalitions working in active collaboration with the NASA Explorer Schools. As part of this pilot funding was awarded to SciMathMN in partnership with Crossroads Elementary School and Anwatin Middle School/Bryn Mawr Elementary School, to advise NES sites in Minnesota on ways to disseminate their exemplary educational practices.

Linking Leaders: SciMathMN entered the Linking Leaders program in 2002 with Linking Leaders 7. A design team is being formed and preliminary workshop planning is underway. Minnesota will become the first state to pilot a new configuration of Linking Leaders for "mature" well-established coalitions.

SciMathMN's early work (1993-1998) was focused on embedding the vision of the national mathematics and science standards into Minnesota's state content standards, state testing requirements, and state teacher licensure scheme. SciMathMN created K-12 Curriculum Frameworks in both mathematics and science, provided funding to disseminate the International Technological Standards and provided technical services and professional development to districts as they implemented Minnesota's standards, revised curricula, selected learning materials, and trained teachers.

SciMathMN established the Teacher Research Network among Minnesota Colleges and Universities whose members researched and developed tools to evaluate the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs. The SciMathMN K-12 Mathematics and Science Curriculum Frameworks; a series of reports and research on Minnesota's Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) results and their use in informing district decision-making; two studies on the implementation of standards-based curricula in Minnesota (No Small Task: Changing Math, Changing Minds and Charting a New Course: A Study of the Adoption and Implementation of Standards-Based Mathematics Curricula in Eight Minnesota School Districts); a report on the racial disparities on the Minnesota 8th grade high stakes test, and public awareness materials (video, parent brochures, etc.). More information on products is available at www.scimathmn.org.