Jennifer McCray

Professional Title
Assistant Research Scientist and Director, Early Math Collaborative
Organization/Institution
About Me (Bio)
Jennifer McCray is an Assistant Research Scientist and the director of the Early Math Collaborative at Erikson Institute, a graduate school in child development. The Collaborative provides professional development in mathematics to PreK-3rd grade teachers nationally, conducts research on the teaching and learning of early math, and was recently awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation grant to develop an intervention for Head Start centers. Jennifer’s dissertation, which focused on teachers’ understanding of early childhood mathematics content, won two national awards. Her current research focuses on teachers’ use of language and modeling in the teaching of early mathematics.
Erikson Institute
09/01/2015

This project will adapt and study a promising and replicable teacher professional development (PD) intervention, called Collaborative Math (CM), for use in early childhood programs. Prepared as generalists, preschool teachers typically acquire less math knowledge in pre-service training than their colleagues in upper grades, which reduces their effectiveness in teaching math. To address teacher PD needs, the project will simultaneously develop teacher content knowledge, confidence, and classroom practice by using a whole teacher approach.