WISE Success Story: Nancy Kress

Nancy Kress is a doctoral student in mathematics education working with Associate Professor David Webb. Their joint 2018 WISE grant project looked at ways to increase our understanding of teaching practices that foster the development of robust mathematics identities among undergraduate students who are members of underrepresented groups. 

The foundational idea behind their research is that learning environments that are collaborative and attentive to a wider variety of students' ideas and strategies for mathematical problem solving may open the door for a more diverse group of students to have positive experiences in undergraduate math classes. Furthermore, instructors who are aware of the types of challenges students face, and who are willing to adapt to mitigate and address those challenges, can have a positive impact on students continuing in mathematics.

Their initial WISE research provided a launching off point for a successfully funded National Science Foundation (NSF) project titled Determining the Characteristics of Equitable Mathematics Programs (CEMP) that extends their research into mathematics departments at four additional universities. Additionally, the protocols they developed have been implemented in another NSF project titled Student Engagement In Mathematics through an Institutional Network for Active Learning (SEMINAL). Through these two projects this work has now directly reached 29 undergraduate education institutions. 

On a personal level the impact on Nancy as a graduate student has also been significant. The WISE project was the very beginning of what she hopes will be a much larger research agenda. There is a huge need for increased understanding about how to improve the experiences students have in undergraduate mathematics courses, and her research contributes to that need in ways that are especially attentive to the experiences of students of color, women and other students who are members of underrepresented groups in math. Additionally, the opportunity to complete her degree with an NSF funded project has provided funding security that has allowed Nancy to focus solely on her dissertation which she expressed has been ‘a gift’. 

Nancy recently submitted a proposal to NSF for a third project related to this work. In conversation with Nancy she shared that their original NSF proposal would have been quite unlikely to be funded without the foundational work from the WISE project.