Elementary Mathematics Specialist Program at UIC
Currently Enrolling for Our Fall 2025 Cohort
Contact us to save your seat.
Elementary Mathematics Specialist Program at UIC
-
What is the program?
The EMS Program is a series of 5 semester-long courses. These courses prepare teachers for the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) Elementary Mathematics Specialist Endorsement that can be added to your Professional Educator’s License (PEL).
Cohorts of teachers engage in this sequence of courses designed to develop mathematical and pedagogical content knowledge for teachers in grades 1–6, and to expand their tools and skills to become math teacher leaders in their schools. Courses meet primarily online with one initial Saturday face-to-face meeting at the Learning Sciences Research Institute.
-
How are teachers empowered?
Math Specialists advocate for high-quality mathematics instruction throughout the school community. Not only are they better prepared with resources and insights into teaching and learning that support high-quality mathematics instruction for students, but they are also better prepared to support their colleagues in improving mathematics instruction.
-
Are there prerequisites?
An Illinois Professional Educator’s License (PEL) for any grade levels and at least one full year teaching experience in grades K-8.
Additionally, you need permission from the instructor to enroll. To get permission, please contact the instructor, Kathleen Pitvorec.
Program Description
At UIC, the Elementary Mathematics Specialist Program includes courses in the following areas:
Course one content overview
Content focus: Expanding teachers’ experiences with relationships, patterns, and representations related to whole number concepts and operations, including attention to teaching and learning in early childhood.
Pedagogical focus: Developing habits of mind consistent with a growth mindset and resources for supporting colleagues and students in developing and sustaining a growth mindset.
Course two content overview
Content Focus: Expanding teachers’ experiences with and understandings of rational numbers including multiplicative reasoning, fractions, ratios, and proportional reasoning.
Pedagogical focus: Analyzing formative and summative assessment strategies and exploring resources for improving how data is collected, analyzed, and used.
Coures three content overview
Content Focus: Expanding teachers’ experiences with geometry and measurement including exploring tools for supporting students’ investigations as well as working with 2D and 3D shapes and developing familiarity with transformations.
Pedagogical Focus: Facilitating classroom discourse and enhancing opportunities for student agency and student-to-student discourse.
Course four content overview
Grounded in content that includes data, statistics, and probability
Leadership focus: Developing expertise including an emphasis on communication skills and deepening understandings of adult learning such that participants are prepared to:
- Advocate for high-quality mathematics instruction
- Enhance collaboration within and across grade levels
- Support professional learning around high-quality mathematics instruction
Course five content overview
Content Focus: Expanding teachers’ experiences with patterns, functions, and algebraic reasoning in contexts that deepen understandings of the connections and dependencies between the content domains of earlier courses.
Pedagogical Focus: Exploring and developing strategies and resources for supporting equitable instruction and for enriching opportunities for ALL students to learn.
