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News
April 8, 2008
For immediate release
Carl Lager of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School wins a 2008 Faculty Career Development Award
Dr. Carl Lager of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School has received a 2008 Faculty Career Development Award designed to help junior faculty develop a substantial record in research necessary for advancement to tenure. This award is for his project “English Learner Reading Comprehension for Algebra Problem Solving.” Lager’s work is especially important as reading comprehension across secondary mathematics content for all students is an understudied, under-taught, and under-documented area of research, practice, and policy.
Carl Lager’s study will explore how 25 9th grade, Spanish-speaking, English learners (ELs) engage with actual and modified algebra California High School Exit Exam – Mathematics (CAHSEE-M) released items to document the ELs’ reading comprehension strengths and challenges and their interplay with the ELs’ problem solving strategies and item solutions. Results will be used to help determine how and to what extent mathematics teachers do or should address their students’ meaning-making needs.
Carl Lager is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education and the Teacher Education Program. He has a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from UCLA, an M.Ed., and a Ph.D. in Education from UCLA. Lager has helped develop, facilitate, and evaluate the English Language Development – Mathematics Content (ELD-MC) institute, an in-service professional development model for California mathematics teachers and paraprofessionals of ELs grades 3-8 focused on integrating academic English language proficiency with algebraic instruction. As the Mathematics Assessment Coordinator for the Vermont Department of Education, he brought EL needs to the fore when crafting large-scale assessment policies and reviewing large-scale mathematics items with colleagues from New Hampshire and Rhode Island to inform the development of the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) Mathematics Assessments.
Currently, he and Prof. Bill Jacob (Mathematics) are developing and researching a yearlong curriculum for the UCSB Science and Mathematics Initiative (SMI) that will incorporate early forms of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for undergraduates who are preparing to be secondary mathematics teachers of diverse learners. This curriculum will focus on the representations, strategies, language, and big ideas that mark critical transitions in mathematical development.
[Carl Lager is available for interviews; contact George Yatchisin at 805 893 5789]
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