Rita Kabasakalian is a New Teacher Advisor at Math for America New York. In this role, she supports and mentors MƒA Fellows.

Most recently, Rita served as assistant professor of mathematics education at Fordham University. At Fordham, she was also the principal investigator for a three-year study, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The study, “Analyzing and Improving Teacher-Student Discourse in 9th and 10th Grade Mathematics Classes,” worked to improve teacher-student discourse in mathematics classes. In addition, Rita also held positions as consultant to New York City middle schools in mathematics at New York University Metro Center and as academic director at New Visions for Public Schools for an NSF-sponsored study. She was an adjunct professor of mathematics at Manhattan College, and also served for over 20 years as a New York City public middle school math teacher.

One insight into Rita’s approach to teaching mathematics is her Problem Probing Protocol (Teachers College Record, 2007) which enables problem solving in students who are not skilled readers. It also enables skilled readers but anxious problem solvers to approach word problems successfully.

Rita lives in New Rochelle with her husband, and frequently visits grandchildren in other states. Two of them frequently hide their school math problems when she visits with the expectation that otherwise “grandma will be mathing me.”