As the four-year New York State-funded Dwight David Eisenhower grant, Developing the Foundations for Systemic Reform of K-12 Mathematics came to a close, Judith Fonzi, director of the Warner School Center for Professional Development and Education Reform and principal investigator for the project, barely had time to reflect on its accomplishments. She and Katie Orem, a Warner School doctoral student, are gearing up to start on a new grant from New York State that pairs them with Joanne Larson, chair, teaching and curriculum, to focus on literacy and mathematics at the Rochester City School District.

In addition, Fonzi and Cindy Callard, assistant professor, teaching and curriculum, are moving forward with the Math and Science Partnership (MSP) grant, Deepening Everyone's Mathematics Content Knowledge: Mathematicians, Teachers, Parents, Students and Community, awarded last fall by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Nevertheless Fonzi wanted to celebrate the participants' incredible achievements before moving forward.

The project started out with 22 lead teachers from four school districts (Brighton, Penfield, Rochester City School District [RCSD], and Greece) and grew from there. After two years Rush-Henrietta joined the project. Following the goals of the grant to create systemic change, administrators and parents as well as teachers became involved. More than 630 teachers from 74 different schools with more than 1,082 hours of professional development have been served. The addition of teachers after the second year brought the total to 61 lead teachers in five districts. Three of the districts, Brighton, Greece, and Penfield, completely overhauled their entire K-12 mathematics program including the full adoption of the NSF-funded reform curricula. Rush-Henrietta has adopted reform curricula K-8 and RCSD adopted the curricula for grades 6-8. Three of the districts have institutionalized a new level of teacher leadership, teachers on special assignment supporting mathematics. The cooperation of all district administrators and their math directors has been crucial.

In addition to the districts served by the grant, professional development was offered to teachers as far north as Watertown, south to Hornell, and west to East Aurora. The seeds were planted in much of Western New York and the Warner Center has begun to offer professional development to many neighboring districts and regions. A consortium was formed in Genesee Valley BOCES to participate in the MSP grant. Fonzi recognizes that none of this could have been achieved without an incredibly dedicated group of lead teachers who basically took on a second full-time job to see this project through to the end.