Education Professor Francis “Skip” Fennell (left) has been appointed to serve on the president’s newly created National Mathematics Advisory Panel. The panel will advise President Bush and Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings on the best use of scientifically based research on the teaching and learning of math.

Based on the influential National Reading Panel, the math advisory board will convene experts to evaluate the effectiveness of various approaches to teaching math and in so doing, create a research base to improve instructional methods for teachers.

Fennell, professor at McDaniel since 1976, was officially named president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics at its April Annual Conference held in St. Louis. Founded in 1920, N.C.T.M. is the world's largest mathematics education organization located in Reston, Va., with nearly 100,000 members and 250 affiliates throughout the United States and Canada.

“I am honored and excited about the opportunities that I will have while serving as your president,” Fennell writes in his first presidential message. “It will be my goal to draw on my experiences to help us all meet the challenge of providing an appropriate and challenging mathematics experience for all students.”

The mathematics advisory panel is part of President Bush’s plan to strengthen math education so that America's students receive the tools and skills necessary for success in the 21st century.

"We look forward to receiving the panel's recommendations, and we hope it will form a blueprint on how to promote excellence in mathematics education," Secretary Spellings says. "As I've said before, it is more important than ever that our students receive solid math instruction in the early grades to prepare them to take and pass algebra and other challenging courses in middle and high school."

Fennell, who has consulted with the National Science Foundation, was the winner of the 2000 Glenn Gilbert National Leadership Award from the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics and in 1997 was named the Maryland Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

For more information, please visit these links:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/04/20060418-5.html

http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2006/04/04182006a.html

http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2006/05/05152006a.html