Impacting STEM Teaching and Learning Through Teacher Leadership Development
Description
We will present the Mathematics Teacher Transformation Institutes (MTTI), a NSF-funded program designed to support the development of teacher leaders to strengthen mathematics teaching and learning in Bronx, New York, middle and high schools. MTTI developed a three-year three-dimensional 24-credits program that focused on (1) deepening participating teachers content knowledge, (2) broadening their pedagogical repertoire through the student-centered process of inquiry, and (3) developing their leadership capacities across a number of domains within the context of a professional community. MTTI expected to see fundamental shifts in practice leading to more effective mathematics teaching and teacher leadership.
MTTI recruited two cohorts of 40 teachers with at least four years teaching experience over five years (2009-2011 & 2011-2013). Twenty-seven teachers of Cohort 1 completed the three-year program while twenty-six from Cohort 2 completed it. A change in the sequencing of courses for Cohort 2 led to more significant results as scores on both the University of Louisville Geometry/Measurement and Algebra tests increased significantly from pretest to posttest. Moreover, Cohort 2 completers showed a significant increase in their confidence in taking on certain key leadership activities such as (1) mentoring fellow teachers with the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS); (2) conducting and disseminating the results of their action research projects; and (3) facilitating and organizing a professional learning community in mathematics or other subjects in their schools and districts. Additionally, their students' scores rose significantly, from pretest to posttest, on a CCLS-aligned set of performance tasks in mathematics.