Improving Mathematics Discourse Among Students: Results and Lessons Learned from a 4-Year Study
The Oregon Mathematics Leadership Institute (OMLI) is a 5-year project funded by the
National Science Foundation under the Mathematics and Science Partnership program. OMLI is
a partnership between Oregon State University, Portland State University, Teachers
Development Group, 10 Oregon school districts, and RMC Research Corporation. In its fifth
year of operation, OMLI is working to build a cadre of school- and district-based
intellectual leaders and master mathematics teachers through a series of intensive summer
institutes and follow-up academic year professional development. The summer institutes
combine rigorous and relevant mathematics content coursework with leadership development
workshops and seminars. Academic year activities facilitate the ongoing development of
collaborative professional learning communities composed of K-12 teachers, school
administrators, and higher education faculty within each participating school. These
activities promote and sustain systemic mathematics reform to increase student achievement
in mathematics. OMLI activities are based on the belief that understanding and
facilitating meaningful mathematics achievement requires a focus on the learner and an
emphasis on all levels of student discourse around important concepts in mathematics. OMLI
activities are also intended to impact the K-12 classroom learning communities, teacher
professional learning communities, and the OMLI learning community of higher education
faculty and K-12 teacher leaders and administrators.
The School Leadership Team
(SLT) role is an important aspect of the OMLI project. Each of the 82 participating
schools has established an SLT that includes at least 1 school administrator and 2 teacher
leaders. The SLT teachers attend all 3 of the 3 week summer institutes (1 each summer for
3 years beginning July 2005) and the SLT administrator attends each of the 3 summer
institutes for 1 week. In August 2007 OMLI completed the third of the 3 summer institutes.
Each SLT coordinates 4 site visits conducted by Teachers Development Group (TDG) each
academic year, develops and implements an action plan for improving the mathematics
teaching and learning that takes place in their school, and provides professional
development and support to the other mathematics teachers in their school as needed. The
SLT administrators also participate in the school year activities.
The SLT
structure is based on the premise that the summer institute experiences will develop
participants' content expertise and the leadership skills, which will in turn enable each
SLT to implement an effective reform plan that results in improved teaching and learning
and improved student achievement in mathematics. To accomplish this, each SLT conducts
monthly professional development activities with the larger group of teachers of
mathematics in each participating school. TDG developed a number of professional learning
tasks from which the SLT may choose and applied to address the needs of the teaching staff
in each school. The professional learning tasks provide flexibility to fit the contest
within the school while providing enough structure to keep the participants focused on
improving student learning.
This session will focus on the how the OMLI project
focused on increasing the quantity and quality of mathematics discourse among students and
what impact that effort had at improving student achievement.
