Anne Papakonstantinou
TCTM is pleased to honor Dr. Anne Papakonstantinou for her leadership at both the state and national levels.
Anne began her teaching career at Sharpstown Senior High School in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) in 1971 where she taught every mathematics course from Fundamentals of Mathematics through BC Calculus and Independent Studies in Mathematics and served as mathematics department chair and Mu Alpha Theta sponsor. She also taught mathematics at the High School for Performing and Visual Arts in HISD and helped open The Rice School/La Escuela Rice as director of curriculum in 1994. As a classroom teacher, she was awarded the Elizabeth Brand Award for Teaching Excellence by the American Association of Petroleum Landmen, was the recipient of the HISD’s Teacher of the Year award and the Sam Houston Chapter of the Society of Professional Engineers’ Outstanding Mathematics Teacher Award. She also was the recipient of several grants for innovative teaching programs.
In her work as Director of RUSMP, Anne designs and implements district-wide programs that impact the teaching and learning of mathematics and documents their impact on students, teachers, schools, and school districts. She developed a protocol to assess the effectiveness of mathematics programs in schools and districts that is used nationally. She regularly teaches courses for mathematics teachers that demonstrate active learning of important mathematics content. Her other efforts include the Geometry Module for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, The Rice Mathematics Leadership Institute, a seven-year National Science Foundation Mathematics Science Partnership grant, and annual Eisenhower/Teacher Quality grants. She has also taught courses in the Rice University departments of mathematics and education. For her dedication to the university, the Rice University Women’s Resource Center presented Anne with its annual IMPACT Award.
Anne serves on numerous advisory boards and committees including The Children’s Museum of Houston Education Committee, Houston Education Research Consortium’s advisory board, and Harris County Department of Education’s Alternative Certification Division advisory committee. Anne also serves on the Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II STAAR University content validation panels. She was a member of the Teacher Quality Grants Program Instructional Leadership and Program Evaluation Advisory Committees.
She has served as a table leader for readers for the Educational Testing Service SAT-2 Study, was an Educational Testing Service/The College Board Mathematics Achievement committee member, and served on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Professional Development Services Committee. Anne was also a member of the National Science Foundation’s three-person team to travel to the Netherlands to research the Dutch’s alignment of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development.
Anne co-produced Action Algebra, HISD’s weekly television show and taught A. P. Calculus for high school calculus classes locally and state-wide through OWLink, Rice University’s interactive tele-distance platform. She co-produced Mathematics in Motion (Best Practices in Algebra I), which was awarded the Texas School Public Relation Association Gold Star Award.
She has been a featured speaker at CAMT over the years and a popular presenter at national conferences.
Anne earned her B.A. in mathematics and French from Rice University, her M.A. in mathematics from Rice University, and her Ed.D. in curriculum and instruction in mathematics from the University of Houston. Dr. Papakonstantinou is the Director of the Rice University School Mathematics Project (RUSMP) and Clinical Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Rice University.
Anne is devoted to her family - her husband Taki, her daughter Joanna, and her kittens, Squeakers and Dorry. Joanna earned four degrees from Rice University including a doctorate in Computational and Applied Mathematics.