By Bill McCallum, IM Cofounder
Every parent knows what it feels like to bring a being into existence with the hope they will one day stand on their own. It is one of the greatest joys to watch them grow, change, and eventually spread their wings. Nothing quite compares to parenthood, but that’s the closest I can come to describing what it’s been like to build Illustrative Mathematics. After a decade of leading this organization as CEO and cofounder, it is both surreal and deeply satisfying to say that it’s time for me to step back and witness what comes next.
Funnily enough, I never set out to create a company that writes curriculum. Back in the early 2010s, I was invited to speak at a math conference where educators were trying to wrap their minds around what the new K–12 math standards meant for classroom instruction. Teachers were hungry for practical examples of what grade-level math looked like. They wanted to understand what a fourth grader with fourth-grade math skills should know—what kinds of problems she should be able to solve. As one of the authors of the new standards, I tried to illustrate the standards so that teachers could better understand what their students were expected to learn.
On my flight home, I received three emails from a fellow mathematician named Kristin Umland, who said she had seen my talk and had lots of ideas. At the time, the “math wars” were raging, with one side carrying the banner of mathematical correctness and the other carrying the banner of conceptual understanding. But in Kristin, I saw a kindred spirit—someone who, like me, was serious about achieving both. What if, Kristin suggested, we created resources for teachers to help them understand the standards? By the time the plane landed, I knew that this was the start of a working partnership.
In 2011, we launched The Illustrative Mathematics Project, a website where teachers could access free, high-quality tasks to bring the standards to life.
Pretty soon, thousands of teachers across the country were using our resources. The demand kept growing: Could we help them use the tasks? Train their teams? Go deeper? The answer was always yes, even when it meant figuring things out as we went. In a grant proposal from that period, we claimed we’d never write curriculum. Our one and only job, we said, was to help people understand the standards: teachers, assessment developers, and curriculum writers.
But when a group of states put out a call for a new open educational resource for middle school mathematics four years later, we looked at what was out there and thought, “We can do better.” So we did.
That decision changed everything.
Today, IM is a trusted partner in schools across the country, helping millions of students and tens of thousands of teachers experience math as something clear, coherent, and—yes—even fun.
Good ideas draw good people, and I’ve been lucky to work alongside some of the best. I’m especially grateful to Kristin, who has carried this vision with me from our first in-flight email exchange to the curriculum now in classrooms nationwide and the professional learning we deliver to support it. There’s nobody better to lead this work forward as IM’s next CEO, and I trust her completely to keep asking the right questions and holding us to the highest standard.
I’m stepping back from the CEO role because it’s the right time for IM to grow beyond its founding story, and for me to watch it run independently of me. I’ll still be here in an advisory role, cheering on this team and this community in every way I can.
As for me, I’m looking forward to more time in my garden, more time with my family, and finally learning how to make sushi, hopefully with a trip back to Japan along the way.
To every teacher, student, partner, and colleague who has been a part of this journey: Thank you. It’s been the privilege of my life to help build something that makes math make sense. And I can’t wait to see what all of you do next.
Bill
William McCallum
IM Cofounder
Bill McCallum has dedicated his career to helping teachers, educators, mathematicians, and policymakers show fidelity to both mathematical coherence and student learning.
He is an Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at the University of Arizona, where he conducts research in number theory and arithmetical algebraic geometry, authors textbooks, and advises researchers and policymakers. Bill’s work as a lead writer of the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics earned him the Award for Distinguished Public Service from the American Mathematical Society and the Dolciani Award from the Mathematical Association of America.
Bill cofounded Illustrative Mathematics, and, as its former CEO and board chair, helped guide the organization’s strategy and contributed to the development of the curricula. As senior advisor, he continues to support IM’s mission by offering strategic guidance and promoting high-quality mathematics instruction for all students.
