October 2000 
ECS math teacher selected for prestigious Christa McAuliffe Fellowship By Sheldon J. Reber, Director of School and Community Relations
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V alerie Gardner, Eureka City School's math resource teacher, has been selected for the prestigious Christa McAuliffe Fellowship by the California Department of Education. Gardner was selected for the national award based on her proposal to create an innovative program designed to provide intensive math remediation for those students not meeting California grade-level standards. Initially targeting low-performing and at-risk students in grades 3 and 4, the program will serve as a model for math remediation in grades K-8 in subsequent years. "This is an incredible opportunity that will potentially affect hundreds of students by helping them become self-confident and successful in mathematics," said Gardner. The math remediation program is similar to the successful Reading Recovery model. The program focuses on 30-minute, one-on-one sessions designed to help struggling students build conceptual understanding, improve computation skills, and develop problem-solving strategies. The lessons will be supplemental to normal classroom instruction. "There is very little out there in terms of math remediation programs," explained Gardner. Gardner will conduct research on learning disabilities specific to math, and develop instructional strategies and techniques for assessing student progress. The math remediation program will be piloted at a Eureka City Schools' site beginning next January. The model will be posted on the Internet and shared with other districts. Gardner is also the co-director of the Redwood Area Math Project and has been teaching in Eureka City Schools since 1989. She plans on presenting the model at the local, state, and national math conferences during the 2001-02 and 2002-03 school-years. For more information contact Valerie Gardner at 441-2557.
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