Professor Gloria Watts Allen

Gloria Watts Allen brings an effective non-traditional approach to adult math education. While responding to the overwhelming need to improve the math skills of elementary school teachers (the central agents of educational renewal), Gloria Watts Allen realized many of these teachers are typical Developmental Mathematics students. Consequently, while at Hunter College of the City University of New York, she began developing techniques for working with student teacher candidates that often mirrored the strategies she used with reluctant Developmental Math students.

While serving as Professor of Developmental Mathematics at Bethune-Cookman University in Florida, Ms. Allen fine-tuned her program. Under a grant, she selected students with the lowest entrance examination scores and prepared them for college-level mathematics. Despite their initial underachieving status, her students consistently scored higher on departmental examinations and had a greater enthusiasm for Mathematics than other students.

Building upon these successes and many more, Professor Allen designed the revolutionary “Free Your Mathematical Mind” curriculum. This program has been used to improve skills and reduce math anxiety in elementary school teachers and Developmental students. She has led workshops in several locations including Georgia public schools and several districts in New York.

Over the years, Professor Allen has made numerous presentations at national and local Developmental Education and Teacher Education associations, including the National Association for Developmental Education (NADE) and Association of Teacher Educators (ATE).

Since retirement, Ms. Allen has remained a sought after consultant for her ability to reinforce adult math confidence and skills. In 2006, she was pulled from retirement to help reduce the achievement gap and fight innumeracy in Alabama and Georgia. Unable to individually satisfy the demand for her services, Gloria Watts Allen converted the textbook she had developed into computer based interactive video courses which effectively cloned the delivery of her program.