Lessons Learned From an MSP: Invest in Teacher Leadership
The MSP Project "Deepening Everyone's Mathematics Content Knowledge: Mathematicians,
Teachers, Parents, Students, and Community" (DEMC) housed at the University of Rochester
was one of the originally funded Mathematics and Science Partnership projects from
2002-2007.
It was originally designed as a five-year targeted project between the
University of Rochester, and a number of school districts including 3 suburban districts,
and a consortium of 11 rural districts. Building on prior local initiatives, DEMC
aimed to increase mathematics achievement of all K-12 students and to reduce achievement
gaps by race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, disabilities, and English language
proficiency. More specifically, the project intended to enhance the capacity of
schools to provide a challenging curriculum for all students by developing a shared
understanding of new goals and expectations about students' learning of mathematics, and
increasing mathematical content knowledge among multiple constituencies (i.e., higher
education faculty, K-12 teachers, school support personnel, and parents/community members)
involved in the partnering K-12 districts.
At the culmination of the original funding, DEMC received supplemental NSF funding for two years in order to continue to gather data from the partner districts. In our request for supplemental funds we argued that we could learn a great deal more about the impact of the MSP initiative if we invested the time and resources to following up on the DEMC districts as they continue to deal with the pressures of high stakes testing and ever smaller funding. Funds were awarded to the DEMC project to be used during 2007-09 to allow the project staff to, among other things, continue to gather information through interviews and reports from key district personnel about each district's current efforts to reform its mathematics programs. The presentation for this conference will include initial findings related to our work with in-service teachers developing teacher leadership.
The DEMC MSP strategy involved developing core capacities and support for mathematics reform while simultaneously working with districts to develop the infrastructures necessary for these reforms. More specifically, DEMC included a number of initiatives focused in 3 major areas:
- Deepening and broadening the mathematics content knowledge of all stakeholders through their participation in mathematics "courses" - some designed by project staff, others through the use of available high-quality professional development materials;
- Engaging parents and community members in opportunities to both learn about and discuss changes in the field of mathematics education K-16 and to "experience mathematics as learners" in an inquiry setting through parent and community "chats" and math content courses;
- Building teacher leadership capacity by developing a cadre of teacher leaders with the knowledge and skills to provide high-quality mathematics professional development within their schools/districts. Through this project 26 teacher leaders from 12 partner districts (2 suburban + 10 rural) were supported in developing skills related to providing professional development, content-focused coaching, and more general communication skills and strategies.
