Collaborative Research: Using Networked Improvement Communities to Design and Implement Program Transformation Tools for Secondary Mathematics Teacher Preparation

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The Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership (MTE-P) is a collaborative of over 90 universities organized by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. It has worked to create solutions to significant problems in secondary mathematics teacher preparation. However, as noted in the Standards for the Preparation of Teachers of Mathematics prepared by the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE), creating programs that achieve the vision of well-prepared beginning mathematics teachers will be challenging. Such efforts will require a continuing focus that acknowledges the ongoing and cyclic nature of improving mathematics teacher preparation program. This project aims to address the challenges of transforming secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs to meet the recommendations outlined in the AMTE Standards. The project will address this challenge by weaving together two mutually-reinforcing areas of work using a networked improvement communities approach. A group of institutions involved in the MTE-P will develop approaches to effectively enact program transformation, drawn from research on institutional change and enacting the networked improvement communities design at an institutional level. The design of this project will thus be a network of networks, incorporating work across the institutions. Simultaneously, work will begin on developing a system to manage knowledge generated by the project and by the MTE-P more broadly. Through this project, a comprehensive approach will be developed to meet the national need of transforming secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs to meet the national vision of secondary mathematics teacher preparation. Over a period of two years, the project will build a basic infrastructure that has potential to be scaled up to support transformation efforts across the MTE-P and create a model that can be used throughout the nation. The project will engage secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs at five institutions (Auburn University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Kentucky, Mississippi State University, and California State University-Fullerton). Transformation of these five, diverse secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs has the potential to positively affect over 350 preservice teachers and over 25,000 K-12 students. The initial infrastructure created by this project will be the basis for future scale up to a larger number of sites. This project will also generate a knowledge management system to capture validated products and approaches useful in transforming secondary mathematics teacher preparation. Project leaders aim to extend access to the lessons learned and materials developed through this project to other institutions.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.