Alliance for Collaborative Change in School Systems

Program Goals
The ACCESS Mathematics program has as its primary goal the increased participation in higher education of urban school students, with particular focus on helping historically underrepresented, and low-income students prepare for college and for successful careers.

ACCESS’s mission is to bring innovative research and standards-based professional development to mathematics teachers working with underachieving students in urban schools.

Partnerships
ACCESS has formed dynamic partnerships to assist mathematics teachers in selected schools (grades K-12) in northern California. ACCESS has collaborated with teachers and school district administrators in the San Francisco (SFUSD), Oakland (OUSD), Emery (EUSD), Lincoln (LUSD) and West Contra Costa (WCCUSD) unified school districts to help students develop the motivation, mathematical knowledge, and problem-solving skills they need to succeed.

Professional Development Program

• The Bridging Professional Development: LHS/ACCESS, in partnership with SRI International in Menlo Park, has provided a four-year professional development and research project, funded by the National Science Foundation. The project’s focus was sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade mathematics teachers across the Bay Area. The teachers received specific methods for applying newly-learned mathematics content to their classroom pedagogy, bridging a gap between knowing and doing mathematics.
• Advanced Placement Incentive Program (APIP): Since spring 2007, ACCESS has worked in partnership with WCCUSD on its U.S. Department of Education’s APIP grant to provide high-quality professional development in mathematics for teachers across the district. This work included site-based coaching for teachers, and instructional and mentoring support in mathematics to students at targeted project schools. ACCESS:
• strengthened teachers’ mathematics content knowledge
• increased the use of research-based classroom practices that fostered the achievement for low-income students and English Language Learners, in particular African American students
• enhanced the vertical teams coordination efforts of the college preparatory mathematics program at seven targeted APIP project schools
• facilitated vertical teams’ training and coordination of the pre-AP and AP mathematics curricula at selected project schools
• California Mathematics and Science Partnership Project (CaMSP): LHS mathematics and science professional development programs also worked in partnership with WCCUSD on its three-year CaMSP project funded through the California Department of Education. The CaMSP project included a cohort group of 95 teachers who received high-quality science or mathematics professional development workshops. The science workshops focused on grades four and five and the mathematics workshops at grade five through Algebra 1. LHS provided summer institutes and academic-year follow up services, that included workshops, classroom-based coaching, and lesson-planning support to teachers. The project goals included:
  • Strengthening the quality and rigor of the district’s science and mathematics programs
  • Helping to ensure that all students have access to, and can succeed in, challenging science and mathematics course work