Collaborative Research: Exploring the Landscape of Rural Mathematics Education

该项目的目标是了解美国农村地区数学教育的现状、挑战和资源。项目团队将对全国农村中学数学教育工作者和管理人员进行调查，并进行后续访谈，以了解当前教学实践和课程材料的趋势、农村社区支持数学教育的资源以及农村数学教育工作者面临的挑战。在调查和访谈之后，将招募10所农村中学参与专业发展（PD）模式，旨在支持严格形式的数学课程和教学。项目团队将研究农村数学教育者对实施PD模型的反应方式，以了解促进或阻碍严格数学教学的资源或限制。然后，项目组将与农村数学教育领域的一系列合作伙伴进行对话，包括州和地区教育政策制定者，以提出一套建议，以提高农村数学教学的严谨性。探索研究preK-12项目（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高preK-12学生和教师对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和实证依据。这是一个四阶段的研究，目的是了解美国农村地区中学数学教育的现状、挑战和资源。第一阶段将在全国范围内对具有代表性的教师、教师领导和负责农村数学教育的行政人员进行调查。将招募调查受访者的子样本进行后续访谈，以加深对调查中出现的见解的理解。将招募10所农村中学参与专业发展。学校的选择将部分基于对加强实施严格的数学课程和教学的努力的表达兴趣，这在本项目中从三个方面定义：激发和回应学生的思维；将学生定位为数学权威的来源；使用复杂、真实、高要求的任务。这些维度得到了来自美国和数学成绩优异的国家的实证文献的支持。这个由三部分组成的同步在线专业发展模式是根据先前的一个研究项目开发的，并已在农村环境中得到有效实施。实施专业发展模式的目的是更好地了解农村环境中的资源和制约因素如何影响实施严格数学课程和教学的努力。该项目的最后阶段将召集州和地区合作伙伴，包括州教育部门的人员和其他支持农村教育的教育工作者团体，进行对话，并最终提出一套旨在加强农村数学教育的建议。将采用混合方法进行数据分析。调查数据将进行定量分析，结果将具有全国农村地区的代表性。访谈和观察将使用基于先前工作的先验编码进行定性分析。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of the project is to understand the current conditions, challenges, and resources that pertain to mathematics education in rural areas in the United States. The project team will conduct a national survey of rural middle school mathematics educators and administrators with follow-up interviews to understand the current trends in instructional practices and curriculum materials, the resources in rural communities that support mathematics education, and the challenges faced by rural mathematics educators. Following the survey and interviews 10 rural middle schools will be recruited to participate in a professional development (PD) model aimed at supporting rigorous forms of mathematics curriculum and instruction will be implemented. The project team will study the ways in which rural mathematics educators respond to the implementation of the PD model to understand the resources or constraints that facilitate or impede the uptake of rigorous mathematics instruction. The project team will then engage in dialogue with a range of partners in rural mathematics education contexts, including state and regional education policy makers, to generate a set of recommendations for enhancing the rigor of mathematics instruction in rural areas. The Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models, and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.This is a four-phase research study with the goal of understanding the current conditions, challenges, and resources that pertain to middle school mathematics education in rural areas in the United States. The first phase will be a national survey of a representative sample of teachers, teacher leaders, and administrators who are responsible for mathematics education in rural areas. A sub-sample of the survey respondents will be recruited for follow-up interviews to develop deeper understandings of the insights that emerge from the surveys. Ten rural middle schools will be recruited to participate in professional development. Schools will be selected in part based on an expressed interest in enhancing their efforts to implement rigorous mathematics curriculum and instruction, which is defined in this project along three dimensions: eliciting and responding to student thinking; positioning students as sources of mathematical authority; and using complex, authentic, high-demand tasks. These dimensions are supported by empirical literature from the U.S. and from countries with strong records of mathematical achievement. This three-part synchronous online professional development model was developed from a prior research project and has already been effectively implemented in rural settings. The purpose of implementing the professional development model will be to better understand how the resources and constraints in rural settings impact the uptake of efforts to implement rigorous mathematics curriculum and instruction. The final phase of the project will convene groups of state and regional partners, including personnel from state departments of education and other groups of educators who support rural education, to engage in dialogue and ultimately produce a set of recommendations designed to enhance rural mathematics education. A mixed methods approach to data analysis will be employed. Survey data will be quantitatively analyzed and results will be nationally representative of rural areas. Interviews and observations will be qualitatively analyzed using a priori coding based on prior work.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.