Jennifer McCray

Professional Title
Assistant Research Scientist and Director, Early Math Collaborative
Organization/Institution
Erikson Institute
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.
Keywords
Mathematics
Number Sense
Pedagogy
Professional Development
Teacher Attitudes/Beliefs
Teacher Practice

Collaborative Math: Creating Sustainable Excellence in Mathematics for Head Start Programs

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.

Math Partners: Collaborations to Support Early Math Learning

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
08/15/2024

Young children thrive when strong relationships exist between their home and school environments. Early home and school experiences support the development of mathematical skills. Often, schools and teachers struggle to establish these strong relationships; therefore, Math Partners will work with teachers and teaching assistants in classroom design teams to help teachers establish healthy, positive relationships with families that center families’ knowledge and experiences in the context of mathematics.