National Center for Cognition and Math Instruction (NCCMI)

Colleagues at WestEd's National Center for Cognition and Mathematics Instruction (NCCMI) are redesigning a middle school mathematics curriculum, Connected Mathematics Project (CMP), to determine how curriculum modifications affect student achievement. WCER's Mitchell Nathan and Martha Alibali are overseeing supplemental studies that focus on the impact of middle school students' mathematical thinking when materials and instruction link different representations of mathematical information (e.g., graphic and verbal descriptions).

Nathan and Alibali will also contribute to developing materials, analyzing data, and preparing results (a) for the experiments that focus on effects of redesigned curriculum units across grade levels, and (b) for the large-scale, school-level random assignment efficacy study.