Mountaineer Mathematics Master Teachers: Supporting Teacher Leadership and Networked Improvement of Mathematics Education in West Virginia

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This project aims to serve the national needs of developing and supporting highly effective mathematics teachers as teacher leaders. The project builds on a successful model in West Virginia for collaborative, teacher-led improvement of mathematics teaching and learning. The project intends to identify, support, and empower 40 experienced and exemplary secondary mathematics teachers across West Virginia. In their time as Master Teaching Fellows, these teachers will lead efforts to improve mathematics teaching and learning, statewide. In this work, they will apply the tools of improvement science and networked improvement communities. Through this approach, teachers themselves will identify and solve specific problems in their mathematics classrooms. The Master Teaching Fellows will iteratively test and measure the outcomes of the new methods through “Plan-Do-Act-Study Cycles.” Ultimately, Master Teaching Fellows will increase their knowledge and skills in mathematics content, mathematics pedagogy, issues of access and equity in mathematics education, and leadership. This project at West Virginia University includes internal partnerships between the Department of Curriculum & Instruction/Literacy Studies, the Department of Mathematics, and the Center for Excellence in STEM Education. It also includes external partnerships with the West Virginia Department of Education, which will provide significant financial commitment, and multiple high-need county school districts including Pocahontas County Schools. Additional partners supporting the goals of the project include the West Virginia Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the West Virginia Public Education Collaborative, and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The project includes the following intended outcomes: 1) 40 Master Teaching Fellows will actively participate in and expand a network to improve their own mathematics teaching practice as well as their practice as teacher leaders; 2) Master Teaching Fellows will initiate, lead, and sustain local networked improvement communities with mathematics teaching colleagues in their school and/or district; and 3) Master Teaching Fellows will be positioned as instructional leaders, resources, and change agents in their school, district, region, and state. These outcomes are intended to develop statewide capacity for sustainable improvement efforts. The project aims to positively impact the many teachers who will interact with Master Teaching Fellows as part of local improvement teams, in some cases helping them to also become leaders themselves. The project is designed to explore the effectiveness of improvement science and networked improvement communities for supporting mathematics teacher leadership and instructional improvement at scale. Research and evaluation efforts will explore impacts of the project activities on teacher quality, teacher retention, teacher leader identity development, teacher and administrator satisfaction, and student achievement in mathematics. The project will pursue an ambitious vision of statewide collaboration and will contribute to the field by documenting and disseminating opportunities, obstacles, and lessons learned from work. This Track 3: Master Teaching Fellowships project is supported through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program (Noyce). The Noyce program supports talented STEM undergraduate majors and professionals to become effective K-12 STEM teachers and experienced, exemplary K-12 STEM teachers to become STEM master teachers in high-need school districts. It also supports research on the persistence, retention, and effectiveness of K-12 STEM teachers in high-need school districts.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.