NASHUA — The local school district has been chosen as a national field testing site for an assessment project by the Vermont Mathematics Partnership.

The program will train 28 elementary teachers throughout three city schools in mathematics assessment and instruction, according to Superintendent Mark Conrad, who described Nashua’s involvement as a unique opportunity.

The three elementary schools participating are Broad Street, Charlotte Avenue and Mount Pleasant.

“I think this is a very exciting development,” said Conrad, explaining it could make a big difference in math learning at the local schools, and has the potential to expand into the middle school in the future.

The involvement from Nashua comes at almost no cost to the district, according to Conrad, who said the majority of the cost will be picked up by the Council of Chief State School Officers. The partnership is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation.

“There is a research basis for this,” Conrad said of the math partnership, adding it has been successful in Vermont and other areas, and is now being tested nationwide. Nashua is one of five field testing sites for the assessment project.

Conrad explained that the project is voluntary, but that the district had 100 percent participation from the teachers in the three chosen schools.

“In Nashua, our community is fortunate to have public school teachers dedicated to continuous improvements,” he said, thanking the teachers who will be training two days in August, September and November, and throughout the next three years.

According to the Vermont Institute’s website, Vermont Mathematics Partnership’s ongoing assessment project is a cognitively-based formative assessment instructional intervention in mathematics. It focuses on fractions, multiplicative reasoning and proportional reasoning in grades two through eight.

“It includes materials related to cognitive research, strategies and tools to gather formative information about student learning and to make instructional decisions based on evidence and knowledge of cognitive research,” says the site.

The program was developed through the Vermont Mathematics Partnership, along with Marge Petit Consulting, a national advisory panel and a design team of mathematics educators and researchers.

The Board of Education was informed about Nashua’s involvement on Monday, at which time several members thanked the participating teachers for volunteering to be trained in math assessment and instruction.

“That is pretty good news,” said Dennis Ryder, a board member.

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Kimberly Houghton may be reached at khoughton@newstote.com.