Building Sustainable Networked Instructional Leadership in Elementary Mathematics through a University Partnership with a Large Urban District

数学是一门重要的学科，它为学生提供了接触其他STEM学科的途径。早期的数学能力已被证明是未来社会经济背景下学校成绩的重要预测指标(参看，国家数学咨询小组，2008年)。学校和学区很难持续关注改善小学阶段的数学教学，特别是在低收入和表现不佳的背景下，这些目标往往被更紧迫的需求和问题所掩盖。教学领导能力培养有望提高学校领导理解和支持循证实践的能力，提高教学质量，并最终提高学生成绩(Ingersoll，Sirinides，&Amp；Doherty，2017)。该项目的目标是在资源有限的表现不佳的小学网络中，培养教师和学校领导的教学领导能力。通过基于设计的改进研究，该项目旨在提高小学教师领导和校长的知识、技能和能力，以发展共同的愿景，并为高质量的数学教学提供持续的支持。在这个项目的头三年，每年将增加2-4所学校的队列，用于指导数学骨干教师(MLTS)的辅导发展和战略性的校本领导支持。每组将以一年的教学领导指导开始，在指导期间，一名在数学教学方面具有专业知识的大学顾问与MLT并肩工作，共同参与指导活动。参与的第二年将包括启动阶段，在这一阶段，MLT将有机会每月向导师报到，同时与新的重点教师更加独立地工作，并继续参与全网络的专业发展。到参与的第三年，学校将承担教学领导和战略规划工作的所有权，同时继续参与网络范围的专业社区。同时，项目组将为所有13所学校的MLT和校本领袖提供专业发展，建立一个具有不同专业水平的持续网络社区。该项目的多年设计允许研究一组教师的发展，因为随着时间的推移，他们从接受指导的新手过渡到更有经验和独立的教学领导者。该项目由探索研究PreK-12计划资助，该计划为STEM创新和方法的研究和开发提供资金。在两年前的工作和建立关系的基础上，该项目旨在建立从地区到学校到课堂的一致性，利用大学的资源，帮助将改善教学的地区愿景转化为课堂实践。特别是，该项目侧重于在网络一级发展对高质量数学教学的共同理解，为学校一级的数学教学领导制定战略规划，并指导带队教师在课堂一级提供有效的教学指导。发展目标包括：在网络中建设数学领导能力，开发和完善一套工具和例程，以支持课堂、学校、网络和地区层面的教学改进，以及建立学校、教师和领导者的网络社区。这个项目寻求解决的首要问题是：如何在一个大型城市学区内培养新任命的数学带头人的教学领导专长？该项目将收集数据，包括教练人工制品，如观察表和报告表；导师日志；对教师、MLT、校长和大学导师的采访；以及教练周期的视频记录。数据分析的重点将是确定系统不同级别的一致性和增长证据，以通过各种定性数据分析技术不断改进干预。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Mathematics is an important discipline that provides access to students to the other STEM disciplines. Early competence with mathematics has proven to be an important predictor of later achievement in school across socioeconomic backgrounds (cf., National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008). It is difficult for schools and districts to maintain a sustained focus on improving math instruction in the elementary years, particularly in low-income and underperforming contexts where these goals are often overshadowed by more pressing needs and issues. Instructional leadership development holds promise for increasing the ability of school-based leaders to understand and support evidence-base practices, improve the quality of instruction, and ultimately improve student achievement (Ingersoll, Sirinides, & Doherty, 2017). The goal of this project is to build instructional leadership capacity in teachers and school-based leaders in a network of underperforming elementary schools with limited resources. Through design-based improvement research, the project is designed to enhance the knowledge, skills, and competencies of elementary teacher leaders and principals to develop a shared vision and provide ongoing support of high-quality math instruction. During the first 3 years of this project, cohorts of 2-4 schools will be added each year for mentored mathematics lead teachers (MLTs) coaching development and strategic school-based leadership support. Each cohort will begin with a year of instructional leadership mentorship, where a university-based consultant with expertise in mathematics instruction works side-by-side with the MLT as they co-participate in coaching activities. The second year of participation will involve a launch phase where MLTs will have the opportunity for monthly check-ins with the mentor while working with more independence with a new set of focal teachers and continuing to participate in the network-wide professional development. By the third year of participation, schools will be expected to assume ownership of the instructional leadership and strategic planning efforts while continuing to participate in network-wide professional community. Concurrently, the project team will offer professional development to MLTs and school-based leaders across all 13 schools, building up an ongoing networked community with different levels of expertise. The multi-year design of the project allows for studying the development of a group of teachers as they transition from mentored novices to more experienced and independent instructional leaders over time. This project is funded by the Discovery Research PreK-12 Program, which funds research and development on STEM innovations and approaches. Building on two years of prior work and relationship building, the project aims to build coherence from the district to school to classroom level, leveraging the resources of the university to help translate the district vision for instructional improvement into classroom practice. In particular, the project focuses on developing shared understanding of high quality math instruction at the network level, strategic planning for math instructional leadership at the school level, and mentorship for lead teachers to provide effective instructional coaching at the classroom level. Development goals include: building math leadership capacity within the network, developing and refining a set of tools and routines to support instructional improvement at the classroom, school, network, and district levels, and building a networked community of schools, teachers, and leaders. The overarching problem that this project seeks to address is: How can instructional leadership expertise be developed in newly appointed math lead teachers within a large urban school district? The project will collect data including coaching artifacts such as observation and debriefing forms; mentor logs; interviews with teachers, MLTs, principals, and university-based mentors; and video recordings of coaching cycles. The focus of the data analysis will be to determine coherence and evidence of growth at different levels of the system to continually improve the intervention through a variety of qualitative data analysis techniques.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.