She had a math problem for the third-graders.

Donnelly and the class read the problem out loud, identified key information and talked about what the question asks students to do.

Then she let the students work the problem.

Diandre Mickey drew a table of seven rows and nine seats per row to find how many seats the cafeteria at his school, Gandy Elementary, had. He counted the seats across the page and counted seven rows down. He decided he could use multiplication to solve the problem.

His classmate, Isaac Waggoner, added the rows by two to get the answer. Colleen Eades, another student, added nine seven times.

"It is fun to give them a problem and not tell them it's a multiplication problem and see what they'll do," Donnelly said.

Her goal is to have students think mathematically rather than follow a procedure to solve a problem.

Donnelly spends her time hopping from classroom to classroom at Gandy, coaching teachers and students in math. She is the only math specialist in the Hanover County school system.

Virginia school systems have an estimated 30 math specialists this school year, according to William Haver, math professor at Virginia Commonwealth University's department of mathematics and applied mathematics. He said the state does not keep statistics on math specialists because it hasn't endorsed them, he said.

VCU, the University of Virginia and Norfolk State University have embarked on grant-funded programs to increase the number of math specialists in Virginia and elsewhere. Within the next two years about 300 additional teachers are expected to be pursuing math-specialist degrees.

VCU received the first of two grants in May from the National Science Foundation through its Mathematics Specialist Partnership Institute program for kindergarten through fifth grade. Participating in this grant of more than $4.4 million are five school systems - Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, and the counties of Richmond, Stafford and Spotsylvania.

Teachers began taking classes this summer and will start instructing as math specialists next fall, even though they won't have their master's degrees yet, said Reuben Farley, project director of the grant and professor at VCU's department of mathematics and applied mathematics.

VCU received the second grant of more than $3.7 million in October. The Richmond city school system is participating in the second grant program along with those in Virginia Beach, Alexandria and the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Hanover, Roanoke and Stafford.

U.Va. and Norfolk State University are also partners in this grant program, which gives participating school systems the opportunity to select six teachers to earn master's degrees in math and educational leadership to become math specialists. There will be two cohorts of 25 teachers. One group will start classes next summer and the other in 2007.

These teachers will be taking classes for three consecutive summers at one of the three partner universities, Farley said.

Both programs also will include distance learning.

U.Va. also received $750,000 in April from the Virginia Department of Education from the state's portion of No Child Left Behind funds to develop and offer new courses for future mathematics specialists for K-8 teachers who already have master's degrees.

The initiative of having math specialists in the schools has been in the works for about 15 years, said Haver, project director of the second grant for VCU. VCU has been working with the Virginia Math and Science Coalition on this effort, he said.

"We think that student performance on mathematics, in K-8 in particular, can be greatly improved," he said.

Haver's colleague, Farley, said improving the methods of teaching can result in students performing better in math.

"There is a great deal of evidence that many students can be better at mathematics than is currently the case," he said.

The programs at VCU, U.Va. and Norfolk State will prepare teachers in mathematics content, instructional strategies and school leadership, Haver said. Math specialists will coach other teachers and students, going beyond simple procedures of solving math to explaining why a certain math process works and why it's right, he said.

That's the goal of Donnelly, the math specialist at Gandy Elementary.

"My graduate work has given me a good sense of how kids think mathematically," she said.

Another aspect of the math-specialist program is the collection of data, Haver said. Schools with math specialists will be compared with "control schools" with the same demographics to determine if the initiative makes a difference.

Haver said he hopes and expects that math specialists will make a difference in the schools.

"If that happens, we're confident that just like the reading specialists, there will be math specialists in nearly every school," he said.

The state is considering an endorsement for math specialists, Haver said. The endorsement would let school systems know that math specialists were prepared. Haver said he hopes the state School Board will approve that endorsement in about two years.

Contact Juan Antonio Lizama at (804) 649-6513 or jlizama@timesdispatch.com