Under a subcontract from Erikson Institute, SRI is independently evaluating the Achieving High Standards for the Pre-K–Grade 3 Mathematics: A Whole Teacher Approach to Professional Development project. The project was developed with a five-year Investing in Innovation (i3) grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

Erikson Institute will implement this professional development (PD) intervention in early mathematics with 80 prekindergarten through third-grade teachers in the Chicago Public Schools. SRI designed and will conduct a quasi-experimental study that includes a matched comparison group of non-participating schools and teachers. The comparison will determine the impact of teachers’ participation in the PD program on children’s learning and school readiness outcomes, particularly their mathematics skills.

Baseline and outcome data will be collected on teachers’ attitudes and knowledge about and classroom teaching in early mathematics and children’s early math and early literacy skills. Data on fidelity of program implementation also will be collected throughout the five-year project.

Since the intervention is school-wide, trends in school-wide mathematics achievement scores of third-graders for the intervention and comparison group schools will be tracked during the five years of implementation, as well as examined in the five years preceding implementation.