Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Partners with NovoEd to Address a National Crisis in Mathematics Education

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- NovoEd and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching have partnered to scale Carnegie's innovative and successful approach to developmental mathematics education. Through this partnership, the two organizations aim to expand the reach of Carnegie's new mathematics pathways, which, after two years in college classrooms, have tripled the success for developmental-mathematics students in half the time. In October, they will offer a free online short course for anyone to explore the Carnegie approach.

NovoEd (formerly known as VentureLab) is a Stanford University-grown online-learning environment designed to empower students through experiential and peer learning. The free course uses collaborative group work, peer review, and a creative final project to enable students to synthesize mathematical concepts and present them in a meaningful way. NovoEd has offered massive open online courses with high completion rates and student engagement that are currently used in a number of on-campus classes at Stanford.

"This partnership gives us a chance to impact mathematics education," said Carnegie senior managing partner Bernadine Chuck Fong, who heads Carnegie's Community College Pathways program.  "NovoEd's platform, with its focus on student-centered, collaborative learning and pedagogy made them a natural partner, given Carnegie's collaborative course design."

Developmental mathematics is one of the most serious barriers to educational and economic achievement. A staggering 70 percent of these students who place into a developmental or remedial math course never complete it, blocking their way to higher education credentials and with them a wide array of technical and related careers.  In addition, this failure to pass math disproportionately affects minority and low-income students who make up more than half of the community college student population. Carnegie's approach provides pathways to success for this large number of students.

"The implications for through scaling the impact of Carnegie's program are apparent: increased workforce competitiveness, increased opportunity, and a higher standard of living for more Americans," said NovoEd's co-founder and CEO, Amin Saberi. "NovoEd goes beyond delivering educational content and assessment. Our mission is to empower students to change their lives, and we are proud to partner with Carnegie towards this goal."

About NovoEd
NovoEd is a student-centered online learning platform that places collaboration and teamwork at the center of the online learning experience. Launched at Stanford University, NovoEd provides a connected, effective and engaging  learning experience for students by giving them access to both world-class instructors and to other students around the world so they may work together to complete class projects. Through the use of techniques in collaboration, crowd-sourcing and engagement, NovoEd fosters online teamwork and helps students perfect their problem solving, leadership and communication skills. For more information, visit www.novoed.com

SOURCE NovoEd