The Milwaukee Master Teacher Partnership (MMTP)
Mike Steele, PI; Craig Berg & Anya Blecking, co-PIs; Barbara Bales, Senior Staff Funded by the National Science Foundation Robert Noyce Scholarship ProgramThe Milwaukee Master Teacher Partnership is a five-year professional development partnership between UWM and Milwaukee Public Schools. The MMTP empowers 25 Milwaukee mathematics and science teachers to learn about and conduct action research in their classrooms. See the MMTP website for more details.
Taking Action:Implementing Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices in Grades 6-8
Margaret (Peg) Smith, Michael D. Steele, & Mary Lynn Raith Published by the National Council of Teachers of MathematicsTaking Action builds on NCTM’s Principles to Actions with a set of activities that teachers can do independently or as a part of a professional learning community focused on effective mathematics teaching practices. The resource includes video and narrative cases of teachers making use of the eight effective mathematics teaching practice. Released in April 2017, Taking Action is already in its second printing. Get it here!
Learning About New Demands in Schools: Considering Algebra Policy Environments (LANDSCAPE)
The purpose of the LANDSCAPE project is to investigate and report on how school districts are responding to the demand experienced across the U.S. for universal early algebra, the expectation that students will successfully complete Algebra 1 at or before grade 9. Specifically, the study examines 1) how districts are interpreting and framing the demand; 2) what strategies they have developed to respond to it; 3) how their strategies shaping students’ opportunities to learn algebra.
Algebra has long served as a gatekeeper to educational and career opportunities. The current policy environment across the U.S. has increasingly emphasized the need for all students to take algebra early in their secondary schooling. Yet, the demands of universal access create serious challenges that schools are now struggling to address. The LANDSCAPE project is a mixed-methods study that examines both broadly and intensely, the challenges with which schools are struggling related to universal early algebra.
For more background about the LANDSCAPE project and the universal early algebra trend, see Algebra: A Challenge at the Crossroads of Policy and Practice (Stein, Kaufmann, Sherman, & Hillen, 2011). For a draft of a forthcoming technical report from the University of Pennsylvania Center for Policy Research in Education, click here.
Mathematics Discourse in Secondary Classrooms (MDISC)
Beth Herbel-Eisenmann (Michigan State University), Michelle Cirillo (University of Delaware), and Mike Steele, co-PIs Funded by the National Science Foundation Discovery Research K-12 ProgramThe goal of the MDISC project is to develop a practice-based curriculum for the professional development of practicing teachers focusing on discourse in the mathematics classroom. Specifically, we focus on six key talk moves: waiting, inviting student participation, revoicing, asking students to revoice, probing a student’s thinking, and creating opportunities to engage with another’s reasoning.
Visit our website, http://www.mdisc.org, for more information, and look for updates here for our forthcoming professional development book to be published by Math Solutions in September 2017.
CME Project Mathematical Practices Implementation Study (MPI)
A collaboration between the Education Development Center (Al Cuoco and Mary Beth Piecham, PIs) and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Mike Steele, PI) Funded by the National Science Foundation Discovery Research K-12 ProgramThe Center for Mathematics Education (CME) at Education Development Center, in partnership with Michigan State University, is leading a four-year research project to study teachers’ implementation of the CME Project Algebra 1 curriculum. This project, the CME Project Mathematical Practices Implementation (MPI) study, is funded by the National Science Foundation’s Discovery Research K-12 program. The study has two primary goals:
- To understand the role of CME Project and specifically the mathematical habits of mind principles of the curriculum in supporting teacher learning and instructional practice.
- To understand the factors that contribute to or detract from the faithful implementation of the goals intended by a curriculum, including teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching, teachers’ fidelity to the curriculum, and teachers’ school context.
The CME Project is a student-centered, problem-based four-year high school curriculum organized around the ways of thinking that are indigenous to mathematics and used by mathematicians in their work. These mathematical habits of mind or mathematical practices are featured throughout CME Project and are central elements of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. The MPI study will examine teachers’ use of CME Project and its role in the mathematics classroom. It will be conducted with an estimated 80 ninth grade Algebra 1 teachers from across the country. Findings from this research will contribute evidence-based guidance on the conditions, learning supports, and capacities teachers and schools need to effectively implement curricular changes that have the potential for improving student achievement in mathematics.
Cases of Reasoning and Proving in Secondary Mathematics (CORP)
Margaret S. Smith (University of Pittsburgh) & Fran Arbaugh (Pennsylvania State University), Co-DirectorsGabriel Stylianides & Mike Steele, Senior Staff Funded by the National Science Foundation Discovery Research K-12 Program
The goal of the CORP project is to develop a practice-based curriculum for the professional education of preservice and practicing secondary mathematics teachers that: 1) focuses on reasoning and proving; 2) has narrative cases as a central component; and 3) supports the development of knowledge of mathematics needed for teaching.
Look for a forthcoming volume of our materials soon!