TERC Board Names Frank Davis President

Noted Educator and Social Change Advocate to Extend Impact of Education Non-Profit in Research, Classroom Practice, and Public Policy

Cambridge, MA. The Board of Trustees of TERC has elected Dr. Frank E. Davis as president of the not-for-profit education research and development organization. Davis, director of the Doctoral Program in Education Studies at Lesley University and long-time collaborator with the Algebra Project, begins his tenure February 20, 2007.

“We are very fortunate to have Frank join TERC,” said Dr. Penny Noyce, trustee and chair of the search committee. “This is a critical time in education. We wanted a leader who could broaden the organization’s impact. Frank is a scholar, skilled administrator, and gifted teacher, and well grounded in the realities of today’s classroom. He has a real commitment to creating better educational opportunities for the students who need it most and all the qualities to successfully lead TERC into its fifth decade.”

“It is an honor to be chosen to head what I consider a premier R&D education organization,” says Davis. “TERC embraces a mission that has been at the center of my professional life - providing greater access to all, regardless of race, gender, class or age, to the thrill and joy of understanding and doing mathematics and science. I look forward to working with the talented staff of researchers and scientists to build on TERC’s record of innovation and accomplishment.”

Davis joined the faculty of Lesley University in 1985. Under his leadership, the Doctoral Program saw tremendous growth, contributing to the expansion of Lesley and its transition from a college to a university. He has an ongoing relationship with the Algebra Project, a network of sites dedicated to improving mathematics achievement for African American and other minority students that was founded by Robert Moses. For the project, Davis has led research and evaluation efforts supported by the National Science Foundation and several well-known philanthropies, including the Boston, GE, Lilly, Soros and MacArthur foundations.

Prior to his appointment at Lesley, Davis was a professor at the University of Massachusetts where he helped develop a mathematics program for adult learners interested in careers in public service. Before that, he was the mathematics curriculum coordinator for a Boston Model Cities project designed to ensure that post-secondary students could make a successful transition into undergraduate programs.

Davis holds a doctorate from Harvard University Graduate School of Education and a master’s in physics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University, an American Educational Research Association Fellow at the National Science Foundation, and the recipient of a Danforth Graduate Fellowship while at Harvard University.

Davis takes over for George E. Hein, a trustee who has served as president since Dennis Bartels left the office to become Executive Director of the Exploratorium in San Francisco in May 2006.

“We are very grateful to George and his expert leadership and dedication to TERC during this transition,” said Arthur Nelson, chairman of the board and founder of TERC. Since May 2006, TERC has received 21 grants totaling more than 9 million dollars and seen the publication of InspireData, data visualizing software for students, and the second edition of the K-5 math curriculum, Investigations in Number, Data, and Space.

Founded in 1965, TERC’s mission is to improve math, science, and technology teaching and learning. In 2006, TERC had revenues of 16 million and its programs and products reached more than 3.5 million students in the United States and abroad. TERC works at the forefront of current theory and practice to contribute to the understanding of learning and teaching, foster professional development, develop applications of new technologies, create curricula and other products, and support school reform.

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Ken Mayer

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TERC

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