Haiwen Chu is a Senior Program Associate in Mathematics at WestEd.
Chu designs curriculum materials and professional learning experiences to expand math teachers’ capacity to teach students classified as English Learners. He leads professional development and coaches teachers in schools across the country. To improve policy, programs, and practice for English Learners, he designs and conducts mixed-methods studies and evaluations in partnership with districts, bringing his expertise in both causal research designs and descriptive observation methods.
Chu publishes widely in both researcher and practitioner venues. He also serves on WestEd’s Institutional Review Board and contributes to strategic agencywide initiatives, such as expanding capacity for research and evaluation.
Chu is a co-principal investigator for the National Research and Development Center to Improve Education for Secondary English Learners, funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. He is leading the iterative development of a summer bridge course for rising ninth grade students to support them in exploring key ideas of high school mathematics.
Prior to joining WestEd, Chu taught mathematics to high school immigrants and English Learners in New York City, where he created projects connecting to students’ lived experiences. While in New York, he was a Math for America Master Teacher, he taught graduate courses to in-service math teachers, and he conducted research about culturally relevant mathematics pedagogy.
Chu holds a BA in mathematics from Harvard University, an MA in mathematics teaching from Brooklyn College, and a PhD in urban education from the City University of New York.