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September 25, 2010

Based on the feedback (via email), the transitions course material has been revised. Key point -- Transitions could be used just for 'non-STEM' students at a college. Next round of feedback due quickly -- by October 4; feedback done on this wiki (in Transitions course pages).

June 23, 2010 The 'curriculum team' has created and reviewed the goals & outcomes for the second course (transitions)! Input is now invited on this material ... start with the 'transitions course' link in the left panel.

March 22, 2010 We have uploaded a new set of learning outcomes -- cleaner, simpler, and (hopefully) easier to use. Take a look at the MathLiteracy outcomes ( MathLiteracyCS-Outcomes)

January 22, 2010 A survey was conducted on Course Goals in the new Pathway ... the survey was sent to all members of this community (Dec 2009 to early Jan 2010). 36 people responded You can see the results on the new "Course Goals Survey Jan 2010" page!

Looking for information from the Developmental Mathematics Symposium (AMATYC 2009)? Looking to collaborate on implementing the new curricular model? Want a place to discuss the model?

Then head to the other wiki -- dm-live.wikispaces.com

A new page "Information Cental" provides documents and other information that can be shared with others. (added October 12, 2009)
 * Prior Work (September to November 2009):**

= Other Work for this period: = =1) Reviewing the Math Pathways (New Vision) -- link in left margin= =2) Reviewing the "FML Learning Outcomes" (for a possible course 1 on the pathways)=

This 'pathways' image will be part of the Developmental Mathematics Symposium at the AMATYC conference in Las Vegas (Nov 2009). The learning outcomes for FML will be used at the workshop session for the symposium.
 * The new vision of math pathways reflects the mission statement AND a goal of minimizing the pre-college course work for the majority of students. The Learning Outcomes (for "FML") illustrate a possible course 1 on this chart -- Foundations of Mathematical Literacy.**

=PRIOR WORK (July-Aug 2009): Reviewing areas I, II and III (see links in left margin).= The mission statement identified 3 'pillars' -- three primary areas of preparation, and the 3 pages provide details on the content that would meet those needs. Much of the content listed comes from expert sources, though the steering team used its expertise to enhance and expand upon those sources.

**//NOTE: These documents are a 'work in progress'; they are not meant to be complete in all ways, and they do not represent an entire 'answer' in any one area. We will not achieve 100% agreement, and the documents do not reflect 100% agreement among the steering team -- but they are seen as a reasonable first step.//**

You can review one, two or all three of these documents; if you have minor wording suggestions, you can post those directly on the page (by using the 'edit' link). General feedback -- either agreement or concerns -- are better done by going to the discussion tab on the page. Please identify yourself, especially if your user name does not include your 'real' name.

=What is going on here?=

The goal of this 'wiki' is to develop a new vision for developmental mathematics, primarily for colleges in the United States. The work of this online community is the responsibility of the Developmental Mathematics Committee (DMC) of the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC) -- though we welcome (and need) the help of others!

As a starting point, we will have a new mission statement for developmental mathematics -- a justification for the existence by stating the benefits to students and society. The ending point of this project will be the description, with some details, of developmental mathematics courses which make real the values stated in the mission statement, while providing linkages to current school mathematics as well as current collegiate mathematics. A final package of documents, from mission statement to course descriptions, will create the "new life vision of developmental mathematics".

For reference, we will have a collection of documents (reports and articles) dealing with the current conditions in the profession. The project takes, as a given, that there are significant problems and issues in the profession of developmental mathematics which have been relatively unaffected by past efforts at improvement. Therefore, we will not seek to synthesize the documents collected here -- they are available for reference, and provide some of the motivation for our work. We seek to be informed and apply wisdom, not to merely echo prior work.

To start our work, we begin by discarding the common model of "developmental mathematics as high school algebra (along with middle-school 'pre-algebra')". The most important criteria deals with the needs of our students and programs; the content need not relate to any particular school curriculum (K-12).

Who are the people involved?
This online community has 3 levels of involvement: steering committee, participant, and observer. The steering committee consists of 6 people who generate the material for consideration. The participants are the reviewers ... they provide feedback on the material and develop consensus for the project. The observers are other intested parties who can see the material but not comment directly.

Selection ... the Steering Committee is selected by the DMC chair and the AMATYC President. Participants are selected by the Steering Committee, and this group is limited to a relatively small number (40 to 50 people or so). Being an observer does not require group permission.

The Steering Committee spends the most time on this online community, several times per week. The participants will be active almost every week for the duration of the project (which began in March 2009).