Lessons Learned From an MSP: Invest in Teacher Leadership

Authors: Dr. Judi Fonzi, Dr. Cindy Callard

While our annual evaluations during the first 5 years of the project showed that progress had been made based on our initiatives it was clear that the impact of the work was just beginning to be felt throughout the districts' systems.  By the end of year 5 the cadre of teachers participating in MSP professional development from each district was just reaching critical mass; the districts who adopted reform curricula were just getting to full implementation; we had just completed the first 2 years of professional development for building and district administrators (as a result of some careful budgeting and leveraging of funds); and, the teacher leaders identified and developed through the project were beginning to express confidence in their leadership knowledge and skills. We believed that the confluence of these crucial factors combined with the support and structures already firmly established had the potential to impact the system, including student achievement, far more than the collection of individual initiatives. We therefore decided to continue gathering detailed information about district/school decisions, policies, and practices with respect to mathematics education from key personnel in each participating district. We wanted to learn what was happing in project schools/districts after the MSP project ended?; what, if anything, from the MSP project was being maintained and in what form?