June 2023 MPASS Conference: Fostering Math Literacy

Vinci Daro

Vinci Daro is Director of STEM Learning at Envision Learning Partners, where she works with colleagues on assessment system redesign efforts that are anchored in performance assessment and portfolio defense. Dr. Daro’s recent research focuses on assessment of social emotional learning as a key aspect of academic learning processes, and on the integration of language learning with mathematics learning. Before joining ELP, Vinci was Director of Math Learning at the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity, and served as math content specialist on the working group at Understanding Language/SCALE that identified, adapted, and described eight Math Language Routines, in collaboration with the writers of the Illustrative Mathematics Curriculum. She holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and was a Postdoctoral Scholar in Mathematics Education at the University of California, Berkeley, where she contributed to the development of the Teaching for Robust Understanding (TRU) Framework, with a focus on the role of student agency and identity in the process of learning mathematics. Dr. Daro began her mathematics education career as a remedial algebra instructor at Seattle Central Community College.

Jack Dieckmann

Jack serves as the Director of Research at youcubed. In that role, he studies and documents the effectiveness of youcubed’s learning opportunities including Jo Boaler’s online courses in growth mindset, applications of neuroscience to math learning, among other youcubed research-based practices for high quality teaching in mathematics. Prior to joining youcubed, he was the associate director for curriculum at the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE), where he led the math team in performance assessment development. As a scholar of teaching, Jack’s additional research interest is in the area of mathematical explanations, especially for English learners at the middle and high school levels. He received his doctorate in math education at Stanford GSE in 2009, co-advised by Jo Boaler and Linda Darling-Hammond. For the past 12 years, Jack has served as adjunct faculty in the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP).