Collaborative Research: Improving the Implementation of Rigorous Instructional Materials in Middle Grades Mathematics: Developing a System of Practical Measures and Routines

这项为期5年的研究项目的目标是在规模上改进严格的初中数学教材的实施。许多项目试图改善数学教学，但并不能轻易跟踪他们在改进方面的努力。该项目的主要成果将是收集和使用数据的一套实用措施和程序，以评估和支持中学数学严格教学材料的实施。与研究和问责措施不同，实际措施是只需要很少的时间就能管理的评估，因此可以经常使用。这些数据可以被快速分析，以便教师可以收到关于他们的进度的及时反馈，并且教学领导可以使用这些数据来决定将资源用于支持教学质量和学生学习的改进。实际措施和惯例系统将包括：1)衡量与学生学习有关的教师教学实践的高杠杆方面(例如，任务的严密性、学生话语的质量)并注意学生的公平参与；2)衡量提高教师实践质量的关键支持的高杠杆方面(例如，专业发展质量；辅导)；以及3)一套关于如何利用所产生的数据进行快速改进工作的惯例。拟议项目的一项关键原则是，各项措施和常规制度可以适应学校和学区的广泛情况。该项目得到了探索研究PRK-12(DRK-12)计划的支持。DRK-12计划支持STEM教育在评估、学习和教学方面的创新和方法的研究和开发。该项目将与三个不同州的五个学区建立三个研究-实践伙伴关系，这些学区目前正在实施严格的中学数学教材。一年级将专注于制定一套实用的课堂教学措施。第二年将重点测试课堂措施在支持教师学习的背景下的使用情况，并制定关键支持教师学习的实用措施。第3-4年将侧重于项目如何“学习我们扩大规模的方法”(Bryk等人，2015年)，这需要在日益多样化的条件下战略性地实施措施和惯例。该项目将参与快速改进周期，在此周期中，研究人员将与地区领导人和专业发展(PD)促进者合作，从课堂教学和教师学习支持质量的衡量标准中分析数据，测试对教师学习的预期支持改进的有效性，并根据数据调整支持的设计。在第1至第4年，该项目将利用技术和信息可视化的最新发展来测试和改进1)现场实用措施的收集和2)数据表示(或可视化)的设计，以支持教师和领导做出教学改进决策。在第五年，该项目将对教师学习支持、教师知识和课堂实践以及学生学习之间的关系进行正式分析。

The goal of this 5-year research project is to improve the implementation of rigorous instructional materials in middle-grades mathematics at scale. Many projects seek to improve mathematics instruction, but are not able to easily track their efforts at improvement. The primary product of this project will be a system of practical measures and routines for collecting and using data that both assesses and supports the implementation of rigorous instructional materials in middle-grades mathematics. In contrast to research and accountability measures, practical measures are assessments that require little time to administer and can thus be used frequently. The data can be analyzed rapidly so that teachers can receive prompt feedback on their progress, and instructional leaders can use the data to decide where to target resources to support improvement in the quality of instruction and student learning. The system of practical measures and routines will include 1) measures of high-leverage aspects of teachers' instructional practices that have been linked to student learning (e.g., rigor of tasks, quality of students' discourse) and attend to equitable student participation; and 2) measures of high-leverage aspects of key supports for improving the quality of teachers' practice (e.g., quality of professional development; coaching); and 3) a set of routines regarding how to use the resulting data to engage in rapid, improvement efforts. A key principle of the proposed project is that the system of measures and routines can be adapted to a wide range of school and district contexts. This project is supported by the Discovery Research preK-12 (DRK-12) program. The DRK-12 program supports research and development of STEM education innovations and approaches in assessment, learning, and teaching. The project will establish three research-practice partnerships with five districts, in three different states, that are currently implementing rigorous instructional materials in middle-grades mathematics. Year 1 will focus on the development of a set of practical measures of classroom instruction. Year 2 will focus on testing the use of the classroom measures in the context of supports for teachers' learning, and the development of practical measures of key supports for teachers' learning. Years 3-4 will focus on how the project can "learn our way to scale" (Bryk et al., 2015), which requires strategically implementing measures and routines in increasingly diverse conditions. The project will engage in rapid improvement cycles in which researchers will work alongside district leaders and professional development (PD) facilitators to analyze the data from the measures of both classroom instruction and the quality of support for teacher learning to test the effectiveness of improvements in intended supports for teacher learning and to adjust the design of the support based on data. Across Years 1-4, the project will use recent developments in technology and information visualization to test and improve 1) the collection of practical measures in situ and 2) the design of data representations (or visualizations) that support teachers and leaders to make instructional improvement decisions. In Year 5, the project will conduct formal analyses of the relations between supports for teachers' learning; teachers' knowledge and classroom practices; and student learning.