Greeting from Pamela Clute
Welcome to the World of the ALPHA Center. If you are a teacher looking for professional development, a parent looking for a student enrichment program, a UCR faculty member looking to academically link with local school districts, a district administrator wanting to connect to curricular and instructional expertise, or a UCR undergraduate wanting to gain K-12 classroom experiences, the ALPHA Center has possibilities.
The overarching goal of the ALPHA Center is to improve rates of university eligibility and competitiveness for students from underperforming schools and to help address the systemic problems in K-12 education that create such differences in academic preparation. Mathematics has been defined as a major hurdle to eliminating an achievement gap that separates the economically and educationally disadvantaged students from their non-disadvantaged peers. Therefore much of the ALPHA Center work centers on improving student achievement, teacher practice, future teacher development and curriculum enhancement in this key area which is fundamental to high college entrance, college success and workforce readiness. The ALPHA center works in partnership with campus internal and community external partners to establish a multi-faceted pathway to mathematics success.
Alpha presently works directly or indirectly with 213 schools, 11,392 teachers, 202,881 students and parents utilizing the skills of 57 faculty members, 450 undergraduates and 18 graduates through 22 yearlong and summer programs. The ALPHA Center programs have brought national recognition to UC Riverside from President Bush and the National Science Foundation, Senator Boxer and the Department of Education, Congressmen Lewis, Calvert and Baca, as well as from representatives from the California State Legislature and the Inland Empire Board of Supervisors.
