Main Menu
Contact: Leigh Flynn
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
9/11/98
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES - In an interim examination of the mathematics education program at Northwestern, a review team for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics said NSU's program was "the most dynamic" of all programs it critiqued.
In comments released to the University recently, the NCTM's reviewers found "no areas of concern. This faculty is well aware of current work in the field of mathematics and mathematics education and endeavors to keep the program offered and courses they teach current."
Continued approval of the program was also granted by the NCTM, an organization of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. The approval was based on the mathematics education program's five-year update report which was submitted to the NCTM.
The mathematics faculty was commended by the NCTM reviewers for introducing technology into content classes and for examining "real world phenomena" rather than problems that present data in "a clean environment."
Dr. Ben Rushing Jr., coordinator of mathematics at Northwestern, said the department was the first mathematics department at any Louisiana university to integrate the use of graphic calculator technology into the first and second core mathematics courses.
NSU's mathematics department was also the first mathematics department in the state to use a computer/calculator symbolic algebra system in the beginning mathematics courses for mathematics majors and to require senior mathematics majors in the capstone undergraduate research course to use computer technology to present their research results, Rushing said.
The review by NCTM noted the department's "extensive use" of modern calculators as "excellent preparation for future teachers and for students who will one day do post-baccalaureate study."
"The continuous use of technology throughout the undergraduate program speaks well of the commitment of faculty to empowering students in written, oral and technological communication."
Representatives of NCTM will do an on-site visit in the spring. During that visit, updates on the observations will be made.
NCTM reviewers concluded their comments by saying the pride the mathematics department takes in its accomplishments in evident.
"This pride is truly justified. This is the most dynamic program of all the interim reports that we read."