The College Mathematics Project (CMP)
The College Mathematics Project (CMP) 2007 study involving six GTA colleges and 10 partner school boards was completed in December 2007 and the final report was released in February 2008. The key event for the project was the CMP Mathematics Forum, sponsored by SCWI through the Connecting GTA Teachers Regional Planning Team. The Forum was held at Seneca’s King Campus on October 26. Speakers included Anthony Azzopardi, Education Officer, Ministry of Education, Cindy Hazell, Senior Vice President, Seneca College, the CMP team and partner colleges and boards.
The report release attracted media, school board, college and government attention and resulted in a presentation to the “Learning to 18” Steering Committee in February 2008. The College Mathematics Project (CMP) received funding in March 2008 from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities to conduct an enlarged study.
CMP2008 involving eleven colleges (Algonquin, Centennial, Durham, George Brown, Georgian, Humber, Mohawk, Niagara, Seneca and Sheridan) and more than 23 partner schools boards (those participating directly on the Steering Committee or attending Forums), examined the patterns of mathematics preparation at the secondary school level associated with success in first year college mathematics (all programs) The research consisted of a qualitative component, which examined college policies and programs and provides context for the quantitative study, which involved more than 50000 student records, approximately forty percent of these records had a first semester mathematics grade. Four forum events are planned in October and November for the GTA (Seneca), Ottawa, Hamilton and Thunder Bay.
The CMP team made presentations on the CMP2007 project to the annual conference of the Ontario Association for Mathematics Educators (OAME), OCMA, the Ontario Heads of Mathematics, Coordinating Committee Vice Presidents Academic and the following colleges: Algonquin, Durham, Niagara, Centennial and Mohawk.
The team will continue to analyze data from the 2008 study and will seek funding for a province wide study involving all 24 colleges.