The Mathematics Master Teacher Leadership Project

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This project will address the national need to prepare high-quality mathematics teachers who are effective in helping all students succeed. To this end the project will develop a leadership cadre of experienced and exemplary teachers to be Master Teaching Fellows (MTF) in high-need schools. This cadre will amplify the efforts of "GOTMath," a current Noyce project that is preparing a pool of diverse community college students to enroll in the university’s mathematics teacher education program. In particular, the new MTFs will serve as excellent mentors to the "GOTMath" Student-Scholars as the latter earn their STEM bachelor’s degree and become new teachers in the district’s high-need schools. The Master Teaching Fellows will be engaged in a research-based Leadership Initiative which seeks to develop the Fellows’ capacity to improve opportunities for a diverse body of students by offering inclusive mathematics experiences. The Leadership Initiative will help the Fellows to become future school leaders who can mentor less experienced teachers to be more effective. The Master Teaching Fellows will complete a Master of Science in Mathematics degree and participate in teaching and leadership workshops offered by the project’s many partners. They will become the next generation of math teacher-leaders vitally needed to create schools that are sites of success for all students.This project brings together nine partners: the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium; Fresno County Superintendent of Schools; San Joaquin Valley Mathematics Project; the California State University (CSU) Mathematics and Science Teacher Initiative; and five high-need school districts (Fresno, Sanger, Reef-Sunset, Central, and Mendota), who collectively will recruit and mentor 18 master’s-level teachers from the participating school districts. The project rests on four proven methods for building an effective teaching workforce: (1) multipurpose mentoring; (2) increasing the number of teacher-leaders who are individuals who identify as members of racial and ethnic populations that are underrepresented in STEM disciplines relative to their numbers in the general population; (3) investing in local teachers; and (4) implementation of the concept of "Lesson Study," in which a school-based community of teachers collaborates to develop and share approaches to improving classroom instruction. The project's assessment will target three questions: (1) In what ways do activities influence the participants’ understanding of mathematics teacher leadership? (2) How do activities contribute to the growth of a Fellow as a teacher of mathematics, an educational researcher, and a leader? (3) In what ways do Teacher Leaders influence their colleagues in their schools to improve mathematics teaching? The PI Team will disseminate project findings at conferences and in journals, and they will share the findings with the CSU Director of Educator Preparation to disseminate to all 23 CSU campuses. 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 teachers to become STEM master teachers in high-need school districts. It also supports research on the effectiveness and retention 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.