M. Alejandra Sorto Assistant Professor of Mathematics Office: Math/CS 575 Phone: 512-245-4722 Fax: 512-245-3425 Email: as45@txstate.edu

Research Interests:
Mathematics and Statistics Education.

Professor Sorto received her Ph. D. from Michigan State University in 2004. Her research focuses on the preparation of teachers in the area of Statistics and Latin-American multivariate studies of mathematics achievement at large scale. In particular, she is interested in developing instruments to measure content knowledge for teaching and analyzing its effect on student achievement.

Selected Publications:

• Sorto M. A. (in press) Mentoring Bilingual Mathematic Teachers. To appear in NCTM Books on Empowering Mentors of Teachers of Mathematics.
• Sorto, M. A. & Marshall, J. H. (in press) Teaching Practice and Proficiency. In M. Carnoy (Ed.), Comparing Education in Panama and Costa Rica: What Lessons for Educational Improvement? University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
• Marshall, J. H. & Sorto, M. A. (under review). Teaching what you know or knowing how to teach? The effects of different forms of teacher mathematics knowledge on student achievement in rural Guatemala. Journal of Research in Mathematics Education.
• Sorto M. A. (2008) The Statistical Performance in a Comparative Study Between Central American Teachers (refereed). International Commission on Mathematical Instruction and International Association of Statistics Education Study. Statistics Education in School Mathematics: Challenges for Teaching and Teacher Education, Monterrey, Mexico.
• Sorto, M. A. (2007) Assessing the Knowledge of Future Middle School Teachers in Statistics by Lesson Design. Published (refereed) in the Proceedings of the International Association of Statistics Education Conference on Assessing Student Learning in Statistics, 19-21 August 2007, Guimaraes, Portugal.
• Sorto, M. A. (2006) Identifying Content Knowledge for Teaching Statistics. In A. Rossman and B. Chance (Eds.), Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Teaching Statistics, Salvador, Brazil. Voorburg: The Netherlands: International Statistical Institute.
• Sorto, M. A. (2006) Informe de Consultaría para la Revisión del Listado Preliminar de Estándares Educativos de Primaria (K-3). USAID/Guatemala Programa de Estándares e Investigación Educativa.
• M. A. Sorto (2005); Identifying Content Knowledge for Teaching Statistics. Submitted as a refereed paper to the International Conference on Teaching Statistics, July 2 - 7, 2006.
• M. A. Sorto, Jeffery H. Marshall (2004); What Explains Mathematics Learning in Rural Guatemala? Evidence from Content-Area Analysis of Longitudinal Achievement Data submitted for publication to Journal of Educational Research.
• M. A. Sorto (2004); Prospective Middle School Teachers' Knowledge About Data Analysis and its Application to Teaching, Ph. D. Dissertation, Michigan State University.
• M. A. Sorto, Luis A. Soto and Ivy Green (1999); Problem Solving in Sixth Grade Unit for the Measurement of Educational Quality, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
• M. A. Sorto, Luis A. Soto (1998); Mathematical Student Achievement for Third and Sixth grades Unit for the Measurement of Educational Quality, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
• M. A. Sorto, Luis A. Soto and Ivy Green (1999); Patterns of Error in Elementary School Mathematics Unit for the Measurement of Educational Quality, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
• M. A. Sorto, W.D. Kaigh (1993); Subsampling quantile estimator majorization inequalities, Statistics and Probability Letters.
• M. A. Sorto (1992); Subsampling quantile estimator, Master's Thesis, University of Texas - El Paso.

Recent Presentations and Workshops:

• Catedra Bloom Universidad de San Carlos, Guatemala City. Presented “La ensenanza de las matematicas y los estandares educativos: El reto de los docentes”, July 18, 2007.
• Grant writing workshop at Texas State University. Presented at Serving on a NSF Panel Review, August 2006 and February 2007.
• American Educational Research Association (AERA). Presented "Prospective Middle School Teachers' Knowledge About Data Analysis And Its Application To Teaching", Montreal, Canada, April 2005.