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About ISTEP

In August 2000 a committee from the Idaho Council of Teachers of Mathematics and two representatives from Texas Instruments met together to formulate a plan to educate and empower the mathematics teachers in Idaho to meet the challenges posed by the exiting standards of the State Board of Education. We also tried to address the increasing need for more extensive mathematical skills in our high school graduates.

The plan covers at least four summers and if successful, may be ongoing for the next decade. TI and ICTM both feel so strongly about this plan that they pledged a sizable sum of money to get it off the ground. Since the most critical group of teachers is the middle school teachers in grades 5-10 our first summer was dedicated to serving them. Having received a grant last year we used it to train 30 teachers using some dynamic middle school lessons addressing the performance standards and then held a follow-up conference in August open to local teachers.

Since we want to make this training accessible to every school district in the state, the plan proposes training 25-30 outstanding teachers selected so that every region of the state has at least two representatives. These teachers will be primarily middle school teachers with a few elementary and high school teachers included for transition.