What Is PD-ROM?

The Professional Development Resources Online-Mathematics (http://www.fullerton.edu/pdrom) is an "Improving Teacher Quality" California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC)-funded, collaborative effort of California State University Departments of Mathematics and Secondary Education, Orange County Department of Education, and the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) to provide a comprehensive, standards-aligned and textbook-aligned professional development program for teachers of middle school mathematics (grades 5 through Algebra).

The project is led by Project Co-Directors Vikki Costa (Secondary Education), Harris Shultz (Mathematics), Marty Bonsangue (Mathematics), and Sandra Lapham (OCDE). Textbook publishers involved include McDougal Littell and Prentice Hall.

The PD-ROM goal is to design, implement, institutionalize, and maintain a model for online professional development in mathematics education for K-12 preservice and inservice educators that results in the following outcomes:

• Students of participating teachers will demonstrate
  • increased academic achievement in mathematics as evidenced by improved standardized test scores.
• Participating teachers will
  • have "any time, any place" access to online professional development resources to help them meet the learning needs of students;
  • communicate with their colleagues statewide as part of their continuing professional development;
  • have increased comfort with technology and greater interesting using technology; and
  • work with trained online facilitators
  • demonstrate increased knowledge of and skills in
    • mathematical content knowledge
    • instructional methods in core mathematics and mathematics interventions and assessment;
    • strategies and interventions that address the mathematics learning needs of students who are English learners;
    • accessing online professional development resources;
    • integrating technology-based resources included within the adopted materials into their instruction,
    • utilizing the adopted textbooks to improve teaching
• California administrators, professional development providers, and policy makers will have access to
  • "any time, any place" access to online professional development resources to help them meet the professional development needs of mathematics teachers;
  • a research-based, effective model of online delivery of professional development; and
  
  Project products include online professional resources that
  
  
  • are supported by printable resources;
  • include video clips and supporting resources of California classroom teachers teaching diverse student populations in specific areas of the California mathematics content standards that students have difficulty with;
  • are structured to allow participants to move through training while accessing additional resources based on their interests and needs;
  • require participants to interact with the facilitator and each other through threaded discussions and online assessments; and
  • provide access to information (printable and electronic) on math content, instructional strategies, assessment strategies, modification for diverse student groups (English learners, special populations, and struggling readers).